April 25, 2006

British beef prices to surge after lifting of export bans

The era of discounted beef prices is over, announced the National Beef Association, promising an end to cheap beef prices that Britons have enjoyed for more than a decade as May 3, the date when EU export bans would be lifted, looms nearer.

The lifting of the British beef export ban would force the country's supermarkets to re-look discount-laden purchasing policies established after a decade free from competition, said the National Beef Association.

Demand created by the deficit in the EU market would quickly reconcile UK cattle prices with Continental levels and the only way supermarkets can maintain supplies is to pay more for home produced cattle, said NBA national chairman, Duff Burrell.

Supermarkets would have to review their deeply embedded, inter-company pricing or see their supplies siphoned away by overseas buyers, said Burrell.

UK prime beef prices are at least 30 percent cheaper than Italian beef. British beef producers are also offered lower prices by their Spanish, Portuguese and French counterparts, Burrell said.

NBA expects the market to correct prices swiftly in a matter of weeks.

Open markets do not allow such wide price differences to be sustained and it is inevitable that UK beef will very quickly fall in line with EU prices, Burrell added.