Twenty per cent of beef sold in British supermarkets is Irish, the first Bord Bia National Beef and Sheep Producer Conference heard yesterday, writes Seán Mac Connell.
Problems for British agriculture, which was first hit by Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) and in 2001, Foot and Mouth disease, have created additional demands for Irish beef.
The conference heard that Britain is now the largest market for Irish beef and it took 265,000 tonnes in 2003.
Irish beef, branded as such, is now being sold in Tesco, Sainsbury's, Safeway, Asda, Somerfield and Co-Op supermarkets across Britain, Mr Michael Murphy, who manages Irish beef sales in Britain, told the conference.
The performance of Irish factories and producers was praised by the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, who said impressive work was being done in relation to sales of beef in the EU.
He said processors were concentrating on the lucrative EU market and this was one of the reasons why the Egyptian beef trade, once Ireland's largest non-EU outlet, had not been expanding.
Bord Bia's chief executive, Mr Michael Duffy, said Irish meat producers had already started to respond to market signals by forming partnerships with processors to produce year-round tailored products for specific markets.
"More opportunities for this type of partnership will present themselves now that the EU beef production is in deficit for the first time in over quarter of a century," he said.
Mr Paddy Moore said Bord Bia had targeted markets in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States as a key to opening up the whole Gulf region to Irish beef. A Government delegation from there would be in Ireland next month.
He said Bord Bia was also looking at opportunities which might present themselves in Iraq where production was very low due to years of neglect.
The beef import trade there was on a cash-only trading basis mainly through Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Turkey.