Sir, - The present action by the farmers against meat producers is seen by competitors abroad, as an own goal. Regardless of the merits of their case, the confrontational methods being applied are causing enormous damage to the fragile international market for Irish beef, which is still struggling to regain acceptance from European consumers after the BSE scare.
Substantial amounts of money are being invested by meat producers in marketing Irish beef to European food chains. In our case, the Swedish market has been growing steadily to normal levels this year the market is primed for large volumes of imported beef.
The IFA obviously has little or no understanding of how Irish beef is sold abroad. Beef that is to be delivered to Sweden from Ireland next week is not ordered yesterday or today, but two to three weeks ago. The food chains that we have spent so much time and effort convincing of the advantages of Irish beef have booked campaign advertising two weeks in advance, and taken advance orders from their shops for delivery next week.
When we now ring them to say that we can't deliver as promised, we leave them up the creek.
Of course meat producers in Denmark, Brazil and Uruguay meat producers are celebrating, as our customers have to find replacement products. These three countries are producing cheaper beef than Irish product and leaving the door open for them in this manner is like committing suicide.
Even when this short-sighted blockade is over and deliveries return to normal, we will have to reduce the price of Irish beef to encourage these customers to buy from us again.
The only loser here is Ireland; and the Irish farmer is going to be footing the bill! - Yours, etc.,
Eddy Tuite, Managing Director, Irish Products AB, Gothenburg, Sweden.