McDonald's , one of the largest purchasers of Irish beef by volume said on Sunday it would temporarily close all its restaurants in the UK and Ireland by Monday evening because of the coronavirus outbreak. "We have taken the difficult decision to close all McDonald's restaurants in UK and Ireland by 7pm on Monday 23rd March at the latest", the company said in a tweet. “In these extraordinary times, it is absolutely vital that we do everything possible to keep cattle farmers in business. Cattle farmers are already extremely vulnerable, and we need to immediately re-set the intervention reference price to ensure price does not drop below current levels.”The Irish Farmers Association said McDonald's is an important buyer of Irish beef. “The Irish beef price is already well below the cost of production for farmers.

Source: Irish Independent March 23, 2020 07:28 UTC