THE meat processors have been summoned to meet the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, later today to head off yet another cut in the price of beef, which has fallen by over 15 per cent since the BSE crisis began in March.
The farming organisations have accused the meat plants of pulling down the price of beef at factories and there were indications over the weekend that the factory price this week could drop to 84p per lb.
This is on foot of a new round of EU intervention announced on Friday, when factories contracted to process nearly 20,000 animals over the next three weeks at a price of 87p per lb.
However, it is understood the Department had been attempting to keep the price over 85p per lb and today's meeting has been called to achieve this.
Mr Yates made no reference to the meeting when he formally opened Tullamore Show which now incorporates the Powers Gold Label National Livestock Show - yesterday at the Charleville Estate outside the town.
He told the huge attendance he was introducing a new £500,000 tracing system at factories within six weeks so factories could trace animals back to the farms from whence they come.
He said the next step to gaining consumer confidence involved tracing every cut of meat in the factory so it too could be traced back to the farm of origin.
The Minister said it would take some time before this could happen but he was determined that this would be achieved in the fastest possible time so consumers would be reassured about the quality of the beef they eat.
Earlier this week, when Mr Yates had warned farmers they were producing animals which were too large for intervention, the Irish Farmers' Association criticised him.
It said the national herd had been devalued by almost £1 billion because of the drop in prices for beef and called for urgent action to be taken by the Minister and his colleagues.
Banking sources are predicting that farm incomes this year will drop by over 20 per cent from an increase of 8 per cent overall last year.