Any company that imports foreign beef is engaged in ‘treachery’ - Poots

Mr Poots made the comments in an interview with Farming Life earlier this week prior to the death of his father Charlie.

“This I want to make absolutely clear,” the DAERA Minister said.

“Any company which is importing foreign beef at this time is engaged in what I would describe as treachery.

“And they are stabbing the people who served them and the farming community with good quality beef in the back.”

Mr Poots said there was “no necessity whatsoever” in such a practice.

“Any company that is engaged in that, I would ask to desist immediately, and make sure that they buy home grown beef.

“That applies to supermarkets as well.”

He added: “The concept that we are all in this together means precisely that - we are all in this together.

“It’s not for individuals to go off and profiteer from this.”

The Minister also said that reports of increasing food prices in shops also “didn’t reflect very well on the concept of being in it together”, considering farmers’ prices were actually going down.

And he said that this attitude of beating the threats posed to the industry by the current Covid-19 crisis also applied to the government, who “need to step up to the plate and provide some support.”

The full interview can be read in tomorrow’s Farming Life.