No agenda for this Thursday's meeting in Dublin Castle, which was called by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, had been made available to participants as we went to press.
The meeting has been prompted by restrictions on the slaughter of bulls and the sharp fall in beef prices since last autumn. The ICSA ratcheted up the pressure by likening the current structures in the beef industry to the "wild west".
ICSA president Patrick Kent said Minister Coveney must focus on restoring order and confidence to the sector.
"Unless efficient producers can have confidence that there is a viable and stable business, there is no prospect of maintaining the suckler herd at its current level and exports of quality beef will decline significantly," Mr Kent said.
The ICSA leader claimed that the Bord Bia Quality Assurance Scheme had become discredited in the eyes of farmers because factories were using it as a "stick to drive down prices".
"We have had numerous calls from farmers who have been paid as little as €3/kg for prime beef which did not qualify for the Quality Assurance Scheme.
"In some cases, it was due to animals being a few days short of the residency requirement," Mr Kent said.
"This has nothing to do with consumer demands and everything to do with ripping off farmers and reducing the overall price paid for beef."
IFA president Eddie Downey will meet Michelle O'Neill, the Northern IrelandMinister for Agriculture, tomorrow in Belfast to discuss live exports and trade between the Republic and the North.
He said retailers and processors are refusing to buy cattle which were born in the Republic of Ireland, and fattened and slaughtered in Northern Ireland, despite the fact that the EU beef labelling regulations are very clear.
"In this regard, retailers and processors are preventing the operation of the EU Single market," Mr Downey said.
IFA livestock chairman Henry Burns said IFA and ICOS Marts also met the EU Commission in Brussels demanding urgent action to remove the artificial blockages preventing the full operation of the live export trade to Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
Denied
Mr Burns said IFA requested the EU Commission to write to Minister Coveney, and Minister O'Neill instructing both of them to ensure that farmers on both sides of the border are not denied the benefits of the EU Single Market.
In addition, IFA also requested the EU Commission to write to retailers and processors in Ireland and the UK setting out that the rules of the EU Single Market must be fully complied with.
A spokesman for Meat Industry Ireland (MII) said that the beef processing industry will be engaging positively in the round table event.
"While the roundtable with stakeholders will provide an opportunity to address some of the issues currently the focus of attention in the sector on a factual basis, it is most important that we concentrate on the future development of the sector and plot an appropriate course of action," the spokesman said.
He attributed the recent weakening in prices to "challenging market conditions, weaker demand, fall in consumption and poor manufacturing beef trade", but he insisted that the long-term fundamentals of the industry were positive.
Source: Irish Independent