SUPERMARKETS have been accused of deliberately manipulating cattle prices down in Northern Ireland to reduce the cost of beef produced in England, Scotland and Wales.

The charge comes from the National Beef Association (NBA), which claims the UK’s biggest supermarket groups have such tight control over the prime cattle market in Northern Ireland that they can use it as a private supply pool to manipulate market prices elsewhere.

It claims that the system means the supermarkets can pay less for cattle in all parts of the British Isles than would otherwise be the case.

NBA Northern Ireland chairman, Oisin Murnion, said: “An extraordinary situation has developed in which powerful companies, which each have big plants in Britain, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, are able to take advantage of their careful geographical positioning to ensure they always pay the lowest price possible for the huge numbers of cattle they buy between them.

“They are helped by the fact that beef from the Republic of Ireland (ROI) accounts for around 60% of Britain’s prime beef imports and it is relatively easy to truck in huge numbers of cattle from the ROI into Northern Ireland for immediate slaughter if tighter supplies within the Province look like moving prices to levels closer to those most often seen in mainland Britain.”