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In the first quarter of 2016, approximately 700 tonnes of beef has been exported to the US, with a value of €6m.
Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed was responding to a parliamentary question from Charlie McConalogue.
Ireland was the first EU member state to gain access to the US market and started exporting in January 2015, with six plants approved to export.
By December of last year, beef exports from Ireland were estimated to be 1,800 tonnes, which would have an approximate value of €11.5m, with the trade currently confined to the market for intact cuts.
Minister Creed described this as an “exceptionally strong start to the trade considering that the first exports only went in March 2015 and some of the plants were only approved for export in September.”
He also added that the Department of Agriculture is currently seeking “approval to export manufacturing beef/Beef Intended for Grinding (BIFG). My Department is engaging with the US authorities on a regular basis to extend the approval for beef in this way.”
He said: “We are currently in the process of trying to secure beef access to other third countries including, inter alia, China, Korea, Israel, Ukraine and Vietnam.”
US beef prices have fallen back from the peaks recorded in the early part of 2015, and the relatively high prices available for beef in Europe in 2015 meant that US buyers may have been priced out of the market as Irish exporters chose to send product to more valuable markets in the UK and on the continent.
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