ICOS study shows UK retailers do not require the cattle residency and movement rules that the Irish meat industry demands of livestock farmers (table below)

Measures enforced by Irish meat factories in their ‘Quality Payments System’ radically exceed the provisions of the Bord Bia Beef and Lamb Quality Assurance Scheme and are subverting the free trade of cattle in Ireland, the Marts Division of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) has stated.

The Bord Bia Beef and Lamb Quality Assurance Scheme allows for multiple movements between quality assured farms before and during the final 70 day period prior to slaughter.

The Irish factory ‘bonus system’ penalises more than 4 movements of livestock between farms prior to slaughter, ostensibly for quality and animal welfare reasons.   Cattle that have moved farms in the last 70 days before slaughter are also penalised and don’t qualify for the QPS bonus, even if all farms are quality assured.

The factories contend that the basis for their restrictions is consumer driven but there is no factual basis for this. The restrictions are simply being used as a market control measure.

Research by ICOS shows that UK retailers in general do not have a 70 day residency requirement. But the Irish meat factories insist it’s a ‘customer requirement’ and make it part of the QPS bonus scheme when no such requirement exists.

In December 2015, ICOS and Northern Ireland, UK and European marts organisations, met the Directorate General for Competition in Brussels to demand action on combined meat processor and multiple retailer dominance in the beef sector.

DG Competition asked for proof of restrictive practices. ICOS, the Livestock Auctioneers Association (LAA) in England and the Institute of auctioneers and appraisers in Scotland (IAAS) engaged in formal correspondence to research this issue further with key retailers. Table 1 shows the findings:

    Table 1: UK Retailer Requirements on Cattle Movements and Residency

Retailer	Stipulated Maximum Number of moves	Stipulated Residency period
ASDA	None	N/A
M&S	4	30 days
Waitrose	None	90 days
Morrisons	None	60 days
Tesco	4	30 days
Sainsbury’s	4	20 days
Co-op	None	N/A
McDonalds	4	60 days
Irish Factories	4	70 days

Michael Spellman, Chairman of ICOS Marts Committee said,

“The Quality Payment System is now 7 years old and it’s time to review it. The meat industry and farmers need to delete or modify parts of the Scheme that are either not working as intended or, that don’t have any basis in terms of real market demand.”

“In addition to responses from the UK retailers themselves, anecdotally we are informed that the 2 major discounters, ALDI and LIDL have no restrictions on their purchasing criteria. They do want all beef to be farm assured beef,  either through via Bord Bia’s scheme in Ireland or the ‘Red Tractor’ scheme in the UK.

“In grading cattle, there is no doubt that the yield and quality of meat from a ‘U’ grade, suckler bred animal is far better than a ‘P’ grade carcase from a dairy herd. It’s only right that quality suckler production is rewarded for the investment in breeding and feeding.  ‘P’ grade dairy bred animals are arguably a by-product of the dairy industry and they are not the dairy farmer’s primary revenue source.

“However, regardless of this necessary grading, citing an animal as being inferior because it simply moves to or from another farm is wrong.

 “The new QPS structure was the result of extensive discussions between the IFA and Meat Industry Ireland. It was hailed in 2009 as a major advance by processors and a positive step forward by producers. The processors said the payment system would stimulate the production of greater numbers of higher quality cattle. But measures on movements and residency were also included by the processors as ‘quality’ parameters.

“Through their ‘conditions’, the factories are discriminating against livestock marts where they have effectively removed the trade in factory fit animals from the marts.  It is common practice in marts for an animal to be sold from farm to farm as it moves through fattening and onto slaughter, while adhering fully to all animal transfer and traceability regulations, The so called ‘quality standards’ are forcing farmers to forego selling through the marts system which has undermined free trade and proper price transparency.

“Irish factories have also developed very large feedlots (animal storage areas for factory feeding of cattle prior to finishing).  These can have a throughput of tens of thousands of animals.  This gives processors the capacity to increase supply at times of peak demand and to dampen market prices. ICOS is aware of US legislation being enacted to outlaw meat processors from owning beef feedlots because of the distortion to free trade. The EU would do well to follow this lead and protect livestock producers.

Michael Spellman concluded, “We must ensure that quality parameters are scientifically based and are not simply used as a tool to effect market control by meat processors and UK multiples.”

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Ray Doyle, ICOS Livestock Executive, 087 288 3499