Edmund Graham, the ICSA Beef chair, has called on the meat industry to negotiate viable prices with their customers to deliver at least EUR 7.50/kg for beef for winter finishers. “ICSA is putting retailers and processors on notice that the escalation of costs means that anything less will be a complete loss-making venture, on the assumption that ration is around EUR 500/ton.”
“ICSA has been analysing figures for winter finishing and the results are a big wake-up call. We see dairy farmers getting well in excess of 50c/l for low-cost summer milk. It now needs to be acknowledged that winter finishing is by far and away the highest cost system of farming, and it is also the highest risk.”
“The beef industry cannot expect to continue its current model and expect farmers to take all the risk. That is why ICSA is now calling on beef processors to make plans for guaranteeing minimum prices for winter finishing, which should be linked to cattle ration price.”
“In our view, that price is EUR 7.50/kg on the assumption that ration is EUR 500/ton and if ration goes higher there should be additional increments on the beef price. The reality is that store prices are substantially higher than last year and rising on a weekly basis. Store producers also need higher prices to cope with escalating costs but this all feeds into the economics of winter finishing.”