Farmer org pressure sees Bord Bia reschedule key meetings on producer standards
Key Bord Bia meetings on producer standards have been rescheduled to next month after farmer organisations confirmed they would not attend in light of concerns about its chair.
Bord Bia had been due to hold Technical Advisory Committees (TAC) meetings next week on both the Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance Scheme (SBLAS) and the Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme (SDAS).
However both the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA) and the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) confirmed to Agriland that they would not attend these meetings next week.
Bord Bia had convened its board yesterday (Thursday, January 22) chiefly to discuss the role of its chair, Larry Murrin, who is also the CEO of Dawn Farm Foods.
Last week the company confirmed to Agriland that Brazilian beef accounted for 1% of its beef supply in 2025.
The disclosure came after the Beef Plan Movement first drew attention to Dawn Farm Foods’ sourcing policy.
The organisation had raised questions about sourcing practices by companies in Ireland after one of its members noticed a sign that was displayed in a Subway restaurant.
The sign stated that "Dawn Farm Foods Ltd certifies that the raw materials used in the production of the beef products supplied to Subway' Restaurants' in Ireland are currently sourced from EU approved plants in Europe and Brazil."
Subway confirmed to Agriland that it "did not source any beef from Brazil for its Irish restaurants in 2025" and has "no plans to do so".
Larry Murrin
Bord Bia's mission is "to bring Ireland's outstanding food, drink and horticulture produce to the world".
Various farm organisations and also the Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald have called for Larry Murrin to resign as the chair of Bord Bia because of Dawn Farm Foods’ sourcing policy in Brazil.
The Aontú Senator Sarah O’Reilly has also written to the Standards in Public Office Commission (SIPO) to make an official complaint in relation to the chair of Bord Bia.
However the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, has expressed "full confidence" in the Bord Bia chair and said that Larry Murrin will continue to serve as chair.
"I believe that Bord Bia’s contribution to record year on year increase in the value of Irish food and drinks produce must be protected, in the best interests of the farmers who produce that product," Minister Heydon stated.
However the presidents of the ICMSA, the IFA and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) have called on Minister Heydon to reconsider this position.
ICMSA president, Denis Drennan, said “Farmers are absolutely entitled to the same degree of transparancy and detail from Bord Bia as Bord Bia demand from farmers in their audits – that’s just a basic principle of fairness and ICMSA is going to insist on that.
"The minister and Bord Bia need to come forward with proposals on how transparency around beef imports is to be addressed so that everyone will know who is buying it, and where it is being sold."
Meanwhile the president of the IFA, Francie Gorman, believes the current chair of Bord Bia "who imports Brazilian beef" has put himself ahead of Bord Bia and this is doing "untold damage".
Gorman added: “It is clear that Bord Bia cannot do its business with farmers.
“The Minister for Agriculture has to ask himself about his role in this debacle.
"Declaring full confidence in the chair while farmer confidence in Bord Bia is ebbing away was a ham-fisted intervention that failed to take into account the level of farmer anger about this issue.”
He also accused the minister of being "out of touch" with how angry farmers are over the issue.
Beef Plan
The organisation which first shone the spotlight on Dawn Farm Foods said farmers will feel "abandoned by our government in achieving any level of standards of transparency, accountability and fairness".
The Beef Plan Movement has also called for Larry Murrin's resignation and has urged "all farm organisations and farmers to come together to unite against this issue".
Bord Bia
In a statement issued this evening to Agriland Bord Bia said it "remains fully committed to working with farmers and their representative organisations through the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) process".
"The beef and sheep, and the dairy TAC meetings have been rescheduled to dates in February.
"Bord Bia will continue to engage in a respectful and constructive manner to progress work on standards that support quality assurance, farmers, and the wider agri-food sector," the organisation added.
