Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am not sure we got it wrong at all. Ireland received a major reputational boost for its beef sector in 2015 as the first EU member state to gain access to the US market which was opened to Irish beef exports from January 2015. Ireland remains the only EU member state to have secured this access, and six plants have been approved to export. As with any new market, it takes time to build reputational brand and a customer base, and the real time to assess its value is when these are bedded down.

This value is still being bedded down. Beef exports between Ireland and the US at the end of December had increased to an estimated 1,800 tonnes, which has a value of between €11.5 million and €12 million. This represents an exceptionally strong start to this trade, considering the first exports were only made in March 2015 and some of the plants were only approved for export as recently as September.

In addition, the trade is currently confined to the market for intact cuts, as we currently await approval for beef exports intended for grinding; in other words, manufactured beef. Another factor is that US beef prices have fallen back from the peaks recorded in early 2015, which makes beef imports less competitive. More important, the relatively high prices available for beef in Europe in 2015, particularly in the UK, meant US buyers may have been priced out of the market, as Irish exporters chose to send product to more valuable markets in the UK and on the continent. While the volume of beef exported to the UK in 2015 was largely the same as in the previous year, it increased in value to represent 54% of the exported beef from Ireland compared to 47% the year previously. This is helped by a strong sterling and a weak euro.

This is a significant market and we are now in it. We are developing and expanding it but we will always sell beef to the highest price market. The Deputy said that I indicated we would have €50 million worth beef in the US last year and I have not secured this. The market dictates where the beef goes. My job is to open these markets in order that the options are there for the industry to sell into the highest price market. My job is also to open markets for both processed beef as well as for prime cuts and we are close to doing that with the US. The US is still an exciting market. It is the largest beef market in the world and we will sell a significant volume of beef there but it depends on the year and the price.

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