The Agri-Food Regulator has published the first of what will become a weekly report on prices secured by Irish beef factories.

It is based on information supplied by ABP, Dawn, Liffey and Kepak, who between them, account for over 80% of the total Irish cattle kill. The values are published for beef forequarter, beef hindquarter and beef mince with a 5% fat content.

They are calculated using a complex methodology and agreed between DAFM and the processors to calculate composite values for a forequarter and hindquarter cut value as well as a value for the selling price of mince with a 5% fat content sold in 500 gramme packs.

These are calculated by the participating beef processors and collected by the Agri-Food Regulator who aggregates them to produce an single aggregated hind quarter, forequarter and 5% mince value.

As the report points out, beef isn’t typically sold as forequarter and hindquarter and that the “limitations of this process should be taken into consideration when interpreting these values”.

Values

The initial report publishes the values for the weeks ending 11 November, 18 November and 25 November and the regulator intends that these will be published on a weekly basis.

For week ending 25 November, the values were €4.89/kg for beef forequarter, €7.13/kg for beef hindquarter and €8.67/kg for 5% fat mince.

Ahead of releasing these prices, the Agrifood Regulator chair Joe Healy, CEO Niamh Lenehan and members of the board held a press briefing to reflect on the first year of operations.

The CEO spoke of the past year being “a learning curve for everyone” and highlighted the emphasis that they placed on stakeholder engagement.

The chair’s letter to the minister back in September requesting additional powers following unsatisfactory cooperation by some retailers was raised in a question and answer section. When asked about the minister’s response, Joe Healy said that “we didn't get a yes or no straight away, and they're working on it at the moment”.