As the Irish Farmers Journal exclusively revealed this week, the Foyle Food Group is cleared to export manufacturing beef to the US.
This is a major breakthrough in the development of new international markets for Irish beef.
The US reopened its doors to Irish beef in February 2015 in a blaze of publicity, but subsequent sales have been minuscule and a small fraction of what was forecast at the time.
It was no surprise in industry circles that this was the case.
What Ireland had approval to export to the US was whole meat cuts, product that they had plenty of themselves and were in fact exporting to Asian and Middle East countries.
Biggest beef importer
The USA is the biggest importer of beef in the world, but is also always in the top four exporting countries as well.
This is because they use much more burger-type meat than they produce and while they import around 1.4m tonnes annually, they also export 1.1m tonnes of mainly steak meat.
With this trade mix, there was only the tiniest opportunities for high-value Irish steak meat cuts because the reality is that Europe, particularly the UK and home Irish markets, are among the highest-value steak markets in the world.
Foyle is now in a position to supply what the American market really wants from importers – manufacturing beef, or grinding beef as it is referred to in the US.
Strict carcase tests
The timing is good, but the business carries with it a huge risk as well.
This is around the differing systems for slaughtering cattle in Europe and the US, which means that in Europe it is recommended that ground beef is thoroughly cooked to deal with any risk of E.coli being present.
In the US, this isn’t necessary, as all carcases are washed with a lactic acid and again in the further processing system, meaning that anything present on the surface of the carcase is removed and burgers can be cooked rare, as is often the case in the USA.
The delay from when the protocols were agreed on manufacturing beef sales from Ireland to the US last summer until now was caused by the need for the industry to develop a suitable testing protocol that satisfies the importing authorities without having the beef treated with acid.
They are now obviously in place, but the risk is considerable, particularly for the early exporters of the product, because while a representative sample will have been taken at this end, a different sample taken at the other end could deliver a different result.
Farmers are familiar with the demands from factories and the Department of Agriculture for clean cattle, and while carcase dressing standards are excellent, achieving a surgically clean carcase is difficult without using an acid wash.
A gap in the market
The great opportunity at present arises by very limited supplies of Australian beef, down 47% in the first quarter of this year.
Putting this alongside US cattle prices running 30c/kg ahead of Irish prices currently and we can see the basis for this being a lucrative market at present.
If we can succeed in delivering the American standards without using the same tools, it will represent a considerable achievement for the Irish beef industry and provide a useful option to handle the extra production coming on stream as well as the uncertainty of Brexit.
Read more
Just under €15m of Irish beef exported to the US
As the Irish Farmers Journal exclusively revealed this week, the Foyle Food Group is cleared to export manufacturing beef to the US.
This is a major breakthrough in the development of new international markets for Irish beef.
The US reopened its doors to Irish beef in February 2015 in a blaze of publicity, but subsequent sales have been minuscule and a small fraction of what was forecast at the time.
It was no surprise in industry circles that this was the case.
What Ireland had approval to export to the US was whole meat cuts, product that they had plenty of themselves and were in fact exporting to Asian and Middle East countries.
Biggest beef importer
The USA is the biggest importer of beef in the world, but is also always in the top four exporting countries as well.
This is because they use much more burger-type meat than they produce and while they import around 1.4m tonnes annually, they also export 1.1m tonnes of mainly steak meat.
With this trade mix, there was only the tiniest opportunities for high-value Irish steak meat cuts because the reality is that Europe, particularly the UK and home Irish markets, are among the highest-value steak markets in the world.
Foyle is now in a position to supply what the American market really wants from importers – manufacturing beef, or grinding beef as it is referred to in the US.
Strict carcase tests
The timing is good, but the business carries with it a huge risk as well.
This is around the differing systems for slaughtering cattle in Europe and the US, which means that in Europe it is recommended that ground beef is thoroughly cooked to deal with any risk of E.coli being present.
In the US, this isn’t necessary, as all carcases are washed with a lactic acid and again in the further processing system, meaning that anything present on the surface of the carcase is removed and burgers can be cooked rare, as is often the case in the USA.
The delay from when the protocols were agreed on manufacturing beef sales from Ireland to the US last summer until now was caused by the need for the industry to develop a suitable testing protocol that satisfies the importing authorities without having the beef treated with acid.
They are now obviously in place, but the risk is considerable, particularly for the early exporters of the product, because while a representative sample will have been taken at this end, a different sample taken at the other end could deliver a different result.
Farmers are familiar with the demands from factories and the Department of Agriculture for clean cattle, and while carcase dressing standards are excellent, achieving a surgically clean carcase is difficult without using an acid wash.
A gap in the market
The great opportunity at present arises by very limited supplies of Australian beef, down 47% in the first quarter of this year.
Putting this alongside US cattle prices running 30c/kg ahead of Irish prices currently and we can see the basis for this being a lucrative market at present.
If we can succeed in delivering the American standards without using the same tools, it will represent a considerable achievement for the Irish beef industry and provide a useful option to handle the extra production coming on stream as well as the uncertainty of Brexit.
Read more
Just under €15m of Irish beef exported to the US
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