Co-Operation among Irish Beef Farmers: Current Perspectives and Future Prospects in the Context of New Producer Organisation (PO) Legislation

Abstract

Irish beef farms have experienced poor viability longitudinally, with industry and policy actors citing ‘crisis’ levels in 2013. A crucial differentiator between the beef sector and the dairy sector, which has higher farm incomes, is well-developed infrastructure of farmer-owned dairy processing and marketing co-operatives. To address the lack of representative farmer organisations and power imbalances in the beef supply chain, in 2016 the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) legislated for the establishment of beef Producer Organisations (POs), facilitating beef producers to collectively strengthen their market positioning. While PO legislation is a significant development in potentially enabling supply chain integration of farmers, how the legislation is operationalised by Irish beef industry stakeholders will ultimately shape the nature and breadth of engagement with the PO model and, consequently, the impact of the legislation. In a context where there is little or no prior experience of such organisations in the beef sector, this paper presents an analysis of current stakeholder views in relation to the establishment of POs. Research involved a desk based review of the submissions made during the consultation period for the beef PO legislation and interviews with key informants in the Irish beef industry. We analysed Irish stakeholders’ views through the lens of lessons learned from the existing literature on how POs operate internationally. Results indicate some stakeholders’ perceptions of the need for a nationally coordinated approach in the establishment of an Association of POs, which concurs with the literature. However, stakeholders have not emphasised the benefits of Interbranch Organisations (IBOs), which involve vertical collaboration with other chain actors such as processors and retailers, an approach that has proven successful internationally. Nor have Irish stakeholders identified the potential of differentiating or premiumising beef products, which, according to international evidence, is necessary for improving profitability and farm-level incomes. Stakeholders identified the main threats to the future success of POs in Ireland as members’ lack of commitment and processors’ lack of willingness to engage with POs.

Working Co-operatively for Sustainable and Just Food System Transformation

“…Findings suggest working together could or already does enable interviewees to overcome some of the challenges they face, including accessing capital to purchase equipment, reaching markets, and navigation of future challenges in Wales, particularly amidst a current context of climate emergency and political uncertainty. Informal and formal producer co-operatives enable collective approaches to: Processing; distribution (including transportation and sales); packaging, labelling, and promotion; organising of quality control; use of equipment and storage facilities; management of waste; and collective procurement of inputs [56] (p. 4). Working together particularly enables small-scale producers to overcome barriers-for example, sharing of resources and equipment avoids large capital costs, whilst processing hubs support more resource efficient approaches to processing.…”

Supply chain management in times of crisis: a systematic review

“…• Others include analysis of annual reports (Koilo and Grytten 2019 ), desk-based studies (Teresa et al 2018 ), document analysis (Kuokkanen et al 2017 ), newspaper (Thompson and Anderson 2021 ), and twitter data (Sharma et al 2020 )…”

“…Due to the regular rebalancing of power, price, and partnership relationships, research notes that allotments (or allocations) assume a major role in strengthening the hands and shaping the dynamics of stakeholders in crisis networks (Teresa et al 2018 ). Areas of interests range from curbing inefficiencies and misallocation (Laguna-Salvadó et al 2019 ), allocation strategies under human and supply constraints (Aviso et al 2018 ; Yu et al 2020 ), and minimising allocation costs (Benaïcha and Hadj-Alouane 2013 ).…”

Market Power in the Irish Beef Processing Industry

“…Crosson et al (2006) develop a mathematical model to investigate Irish beef production systems [39]. Moreover, the research on beef producer organizations indicates that stakeholders have not emphasized the benefits of Interbranch organizations [40]. Fischer and Hartmann (2010) take the Irish beef industry as an instance to estimate options for coordinating agricultural markets [41].…”