Mr. Padraig Brennan:

Behind the grass-fed logo, we have developed a grass-fed standard over the past year and a half or so. The grass-fed standard has now been approved by the Irish National Accreditation Board. It works on the basis that at least 90% of the feed consumed by the animal in its lifetime needs to be grass or grass-based forage. That is the minimum bar. In reality, based on the data coming through, the amount consumed is probably closer to 95%. When developing the standard, we examined a number of our key export markets to determine what level of grass feeding would be acceptable to consumers. We concluded that a level anywhere close to 90% was deemed to be really strong.

The reason we went down the route of having a grass-fed standard in the first place was that, in terms of areas in which consumers are interested, the grass-fed message is one of the stronger ones because it implies a natural production system and a higher-welfare production system. These are all strengths. Now that we have a verified grass-fed standard in place, it allows us to robustly communicate that and demonstrate it in the marketplace.