It is thought that the increase in price for meat across Europe at consumer level has influenced consumer demand for beef.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), stated that France, Italy and Spain had all reported year-on-year declines in the amount of beef sales.

In Spain, beef prices increased by 2% but consumer sales dropped by 5%, and in France although prices remained stable, the volume of beef sales for fresh beef dropped by 3% and for frozen mince by 2%.

Cheap meat increases sales

However, Germany bucked the continental trend and reported an 11% increase in the volume of beef sales to the end of August 2017.

But this was coupled with a 2% drop in consumer beef prices which would seem to indicate that consumers are unwilling to buy beef they don’t see as competitively priced.

French relations

This week saw An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar strengthen Franco-Irish relations in Paris, and in the event of a hard Brexit, France could become our closest trading partner.

But according to Bord Bia, Irish beef exports to France dropped by 10% in 2016 to 47,000t, and with France’s own domestic demand for beef dipping, they are unlikely to replace the UK as our biggest beef trading partner.

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