Retailers ‘don’t want’ steaks from 420kg cattle

Ireland’s supermarkets don’t want striploin steaks from an animal weighing 420kg because the consumer just won’t pay for it, group development manager with Dawn Meats Paul Nolan has said.

“The vast majority of the market today is at about 280kg and 380kg, maybe 390kg.

“If you’ve a striploin from a 420kg animal, the supermarket doesn’t want it for the reason I’ve given earlier – the consumer just won’t pay for it. So where does it go? The next place is usually your local pub or restaurant where they’re doing a carvery where they are cutting it very thinly as roast beef, which has a much lower value.

“To that extent we are muzzled in terms of any premia on heavy animals, in fact as you can see in the last 20 years, the pendulum has gone very much the other way, dictated by and large by ourselves, the consumers,” he said.

Dictated

The market does not dictate steak sizes in shops, but women do, Nolan said.

“If a man goes into a store generally, the bigger the steak [the better] - we don’t even look at the pack. Women are much better in terms of budgetary shopping,” he said, adding that if they see two nice steaks, at around €8 to €10 they’ll buy them.

No matter how good looking that steak is if it’s priced at €14/€15 women just won’t buy it, he said.

“Equally if they’re too small, no matter how good in value they are they won’t buy them either. That’s what dictates the rate, that in effect is the market speaking to us,” he said.

There is a “very, very small” premium market for smaller beef carcases, Nolan said.

“I’m slow to say this because I don’t want the wrong message going out. The smart answer is there’s a market for every carcase, it’s a question of what the return is going to be.

“If you’re asking me if there’s a premium market for those smaller carcases, it’s very, very small. They will not make the majority of premium market requirements,” Nolan said at the Sustainable Livestock Village at Tullamore Show on Sunday.

Small premium for lighter carcases

There is a “very, very small” premium market for smaller beef carcases, Nolan said.

“I’m slow to say this because I don’t want the wrong message going out. The smart answer is there’s a market for every carcase, it’s a question of what the return is going to be.

“If you’re asking me if there’s a premium market for those smaller carcases, it’s very, very small. They will not make the majority of premium market requirements,” Nolan said at the Sustainable Livestock Village at Tullamore Show on Sunday.