Reduced beef supply in Ireland and across Europe has helped push up beef prices here, with the outlook for the sector remaining positive into the autumn.
Joe Burke, Senior Manager of Meat & Livestock, said at a Teagasc DairyBeef 500 event in Clonmel he doesn’t see an average price decline for 2023.
“We started the year so strong compared to last year that they will only go up on average for the year,” he said.
“I would be a bit cautious in cattle given the volatility in the second half of the year [supplies] it gets tight in the first half. In the peak months of October and November there can probably be a slightly higher availability of cattle.
“We’ve also seen some market pressures on the impact of inflation and reduced consumer spending power, so it’s not all easy. But I think we will see an average price increase this year compared to last year.”
Markets like Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy, he said, all saw their own supply of home-grown beef drop, “and I would see that trend continue this year.”
He said that looking ahead, Irish cattle stocks will be tight in the first half of the year, partly because input costs have risen so much, and a certain number of producers will put more effort and supplies into finishing cattle steer from grass.
In the European market, beef prices rose by over 25 percent last year, the biggest increase for Irish beef exports. “We’ve seen a very significant increase in prices since mid-November,” Mr Burke said.
“We were in a period where basis prices went to the mid-€4.50s and we are now well above €5 with a much more positive outlook which bodes well for the time of year which is crucial for winter finishers .”
He said understanding of breast milk or dairy beef at the consumer level is “unsurprisingly very low”. “We know that from our mother cattle initiative, our mother milk brand offer, to develop a mother cattle brand.”
Even across markets where you would think there would be a reasonable knowledge of breed types, like in France or Italy…he said “their assumption is that everything comes from a specific beef background, specifically bred for beef”.
