Demands by farmers for the head of the Bord Bia chair are delusional and dangerous |
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........