October 24, 2007

 

Irish beef uncompetitive against South American beef

 

 

The Irish Food Board (Bord Bia) admits beef from Ireland is not competitive compared to those coming from Brazil and Argentina.

 

However, Irish beef exporters can generate 170 million euros by penetrating the European market, according to Bord Bia Chairman Aidan Cotter. By doing so, the country has to reposition its market strategy to increase their existing revenues.

 

Currently Irish beef is available at 62 supermarket groups in Europe and Cotter hopes to extend this number to between 80 and 90 chains in a growing premium sector that is expected to hold about 15 percent of the market by 2015.

 

He said the country's REPS (Rural Environment Protection Scheme) scheme provided an opportunity to market Irish beef as a very eco-friendly product and that opportunities existing in the organic beef sector should be exploited.

 

Ireland is currently targeting Germany as its possible retail market.

 

Germans refer to "Aldisierung" as a word to describe consumers' belief that "quality is important, but price is even more important".

 

Research shows that 98 percent of the country's consumers shop in discount stores and Aldi is the largest in a sector that has almost reached saturation point.

 

Liam McHale, Bord Bia's manager in Germany, said Bord Bia was looking to align itself with the premium end of the market.

 

McHale said they aim to get the Mitchellin star chefs to endorse their products as three and a half thousand tonnes of Irish beef is exported to Germany each year with Bord Bia is hoping to double that in the next five years.

 

Looking at the German beef market at present, he said retail sales were dominated by German beef while South American beef dominated the lucrative restaurant sector.

 

Meat exports account for approximately 11 percent of Irish food and drink exports to Germany. In 2006 meat sales were valued at 46 million euros, he said.

 

However, with a relatively low beef consumption of 12.7kg per capita compared to an EU average of 17.6 kilograms, pork still dominates meat consumption.