One key fact was entirely missing from the minds of the members of the Oireachtas agriculture committee who questioned Bord Bia chair Larry Murrin this week. Brazilian beef has been imported into the EU for years in small quantities, under a series of trade agreements. That Murrin’s company, Dawn Farms, a big supplier to the European convenience food industry, uses some foreign beef as part of its product mix is completely normal. Just 1 per cent of its total supply comes from Brazil.
The company, meanwhile, is a big buyer of Irish beef and thus a source of revenue for Irish meat companies and farmers. For farmers to expect that they can benefit from the international markets opened up to them by a company such as Dawn Farms, while somehow exercising a ban on a small amount of beef bought from Brazil, is delusional. And so is their case that there is some conflict of interest here for Murrin, who is Dawn Farms’ chief executive.
Presenting the use of Brazilian beef by Dawn Farms as some kind of “gotcha” moment or a “conflict of interest” – both bought into by many of the TDs and Senators on the committee as well as Sinn Féin – is ridiculous. So is the claim that beef from Brazil is full of banned hormones. The much-referred to case last year in which banned hormones were found in a consignment of Brazilian beef is being turned into a generalisation. Imports of beef are subject to EU rules and standards. The recall last year was notable, but shows these standards in operation.
Dawn Farms was not involved in the product recall last year. And we can be sure that both it and its customers will do everything possible to satisfy themselves about the safety of all the product they use. The risk of getting caught up in a product recall and bad publicity would be just too high.
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The company’s purchases are driven by big international companies who demand a guarantee of uninterrupted supply of beef at a whole range of price points and technical specifications. Brazilian beef is just a small part of this story. In a post on LinkedIn, Justin McCarthy, former chief executive and editor of the Irish Farmers Journal, explained how business-to-business suppliers such as Dawn Foods need to be able to supply customers with meat that can be used everywhere from a premium steak in a high-end restaurant to a shredded topping on a €1.50 pizza to a filling for a ready meal or a component in a global fast-food chain’s menu. They thus need a variety of sources of raw material from around the world, but as a result can get business from large food companies and so also place premium Irish beef in valuable markets.
Irish farmers feel frustrated, for sure, at the regulatory hoops they must jump through, meeting requirements that are more onerous than those in countries such as Brazil. But the flip side of this is the production of beef, which can get premium prices on world markets, with much of it used in the expensive restaurant and other higher-margin markets‚ rather than the cheap pizza topping. You can’t sell around the world and keep your own market closed. The essence of trade is that it is a two-way street – just consider that a lot of food is imported here for use in all kind of food products, which are then exported. And that Ireland itself exported some €19 billion of food products last year.
The Mercosur trade deal, which would allow a small amount of additional Brazilian beef into the EU market, is part of what added fuel to this issue. The Irish farm lobby succeeded in getting the Government to oppose the deal, prioritising agriculture interests – or, to be accurate, beef industry interests – over those of the wider economy. This was a mistake by the Coalition, which failed to make the case for Mercosur and let the farmers back them into a corner. A small trading nation voting against a free trade deal that would be a net benefit to its economy is all wrong, particularly in the context of a threat to the free trade system from Washington.
That farm representatives should follow this up by seeking the removal of the Bord Bia chairman is a stretch way too far. Not only is it unjustified, but it will burn political capital for farmers with the Government, with vital issues such as the future of the Common Agricultural Policy post-2027 in play.
And who do farmers want as chair of Bord Bia? Any industry figure, on their calculation, will surely be seen to be compromised. So do they want one of the merry-go-round directors who shuffle from one State board to another with qualifications on how to run a meeting and oversee corporate governance, but no on-the-ground experience that can really add value?
Farmers have been marched up the hill by their representatives, notably the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA). What does it hope to achieve, beyond a meaningless “win”? Is it trying to compete with the rival Beef Plan Movement, which sprang to prominence in 2019 in a blockade of meat plants seeking higher prices for farmers and originally raised the Bord Bia issue?
There is no obvious way out. Murrin told the Oireachtas committee this week – amid the predictable showboating from TDs and Senators – that the farm organisations had refused an offer to sit down and discuss the issue outside a board meeting, and just wanted his head. Unless Dawn Farms will say it is not buying Brazilian beef, or Murrin steps down, is it not clear what could solve this. And the word is that he has solid Government support. The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association has moderated its position and called for a round-table discussion, but the IFA, so far, has not. Were Murrin to get fed up and resign, then the already-difficult job of getting experienced business people to serve on State boards will get even harder.
Murrin warned the committee about a “fortress Ireland” mentality. And he is right that there is a dangerous message now being sent out. As one source put it, Ireland imports a lot and exports a lot and makes its living from the value it adds in between. As well as questioning Ireland’s commitment to free trade, the controversy also risks unjustifiably undermining confidence in Bord Bia. And in consumer markets, confidence is everything.
The Government is facing pressures on trade – on Mercosur, on relations with the US and in potentially contentious talks in the EU on proposals for a “buy European” drive, where Ireland will argue against protectionism. The message sent out from the Oireachtas committee this week was that farmers and many legislators are failing to grasp this context – or just don’t care about it.
