I was delighted to be invited to an event on the farm of Johnny, Derek and Curtis Weir just outside Lifford, Co Donegal, last Friday afternoon.

The event was to formally launch and celebrate the fact that Irish Grass-Fed Beef has been awarded protected geographical indication (PGI) status by the European Commission.

The launch was attended by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue and Northern Ireland agriculture minister Andrew Muir.

Both were in attendance, as the status has been achieved and awarded as an island of Ireland initiative and is the culmination of many years of work by Bord Bia and its Northern Ireland counterparts.

PGI status

So, what is PGI status and how will it help Irish beef farmers?

PGI emphasises the relationship between the specific geographic region, in this case Ireland and the name of the product, where a particular quality, reputation or other characteristic is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.

Irish cattle are primarily grass-fed, which gives the meat different characteristics to meat produced from cattle that are housed year-round and from the point of view of climate change and emissions, is obviously a much more sustainable system.

We’re all familiar with champagne, which also has PGI status, and what is champagne? It’s sparkling wine from the Champagne region of France.

However, I think most of us tend to call all sparkling wine champagne, no matter where it comes from - champagne is the brand on everyone’s lips and is seen as a premium product.

Irish whiskey is another example of a product with PGI status which also demands a premium.

Monetary benefits

It’s difficult to quantify at this stage what monetary benefits - if any - PGI status will mean for Irish farmers, but the hope would be that the status will elevate Irish beef to be seen as an elite and premium product, especially within European markets such as Italy, where half of all food and drink products have PGI status.

The fact that Irish beef now has PGI status means that levy money can be spent on its promotion, which again can only be a step in the right direction.

The status will only be applied to cattle that derive 90% of their feed intake from grass and spend a minimum of 220 days per year grazing pasture.

Eligible animals will be bullocks and heifers up to 36 months with conformation better than O- and fat score between 2+ and 4+ and beef cows up to 120 months and fat score between 2+ and 5.

While it’s not a magic wand in the marketplace, PGI status can only be a good thing when it comes to building a proper branded identity for Irish Grass-Fed Beef.