The UK supermarket group Asda has been sold by Walmart to brothers Mohsin and Zuber Issa and private equity firm TDR Capital LLP in a £6.8bn (€7.5bn) deal.

What will be of particular concern to Irish farmers is that the new owners have committed to sourcing 100% British beef, as well as increasing purchases of British chicken, dairy, wheat and potatoes from UK suppliers.

Irish beef

The Irish Farmers Journal estimates that Asda has been taking approximately 25,000t carcase weight equivalent of Irish beef annually for their 6,000 plus stores, which is the equivalent of 75,000 cattle.

Of course, if Asda drops Ireland as a source of supply, it will create an opportunity for Northern Ireland factories and farmers to make up at least some of the deficit.

In the 12 weeks to 6 September, Kantar data puts Asda the third largest grocery seller in Britain with 14.5% of the total grocery market, just behind Sainsbury’s on 14.9% with Tesco the largest on 26.8%.

All of these offer a British and Irish beef range, though Asda had the largest offerings in past AHDB surveys, with Irish beef making up to one-third of its beef.

Tesco usually had between 10% and 20% of its beef offering from Ireland and Sainsbury’s usually had between 5% and 10%.

While a number of Irish factories have Asda approval, ABP is the main beef supplier from both its UK and Irish factories.