Is Poland the new Ireland for beef?

As well as competing with Poland in football for a place at the European championships, it looks like we will be competing more and more with them in international beef markets as well.

Since joining the EU, Poland has prospered in its industrial and agricultural development including development of a beef processing sector.

It is now the second largest exporter of beef in the EU behind Ireland because even though it has a similar cattle population and a home market of 38 million people, it does not really have a domestic market. Polish consumers eat less than quarter as much beef as Irish consumers, preferring poultry and pork.

Its beef industry today is on the same journey the Irish industry began in the 1960’s, moving from exporting live cattle to neighbouring countries to building a beef export industry and selling beef instead.

However, we can expect Poland to achieve its development in a decade rather than the fifty years it took us. It has one other feature – one of its large processors is ABP who has had a factory there since 2011 and added a second one last year. We can expect that ABP, Poland and development will feature in the same sentence in the years ahead.

Poland’s beef industry is driven by cattle from the dairy herd as it does not have a specialised suckler industry. The big driver of expansion is young bull production which increased by as much as 17% in the first quarter of 2015 and follows on from the 19% rise in 2014, partly the result of industry restructuring.

Dairy calves that had previously been exported are being finished in Poland by dairy producers and specialist finishing units. No doubt an encouraging factor in this growth is the availability of a €70 coupled payment per male calf, part of the Polish implementation of the recent CAP reform. Rearing calf exports fell by one third to 120,000 head in 2014. As recently as 2009 rearing calf exports were almost 500,000 head, such has been the growth of finishing in Poland.

Polish beef prices are currently trading at more than a euro below Irish prices and their main markets are Germany Italy France and the Netherlands. Until Poland banned ritual slaughter, they were major suppliers to Middle Eastern markets.

While they don’t have the volumes of quality beef breeds to compete actively in the top end of European steak markets, they do however compete head to head on manufacturing beef. Growth of Polish supplies has pressured Irish and UK manufacturing sales over the past two years, particularly since they ceased ritual slaughter for the Middle East.

Poland is currently the “value” beef exporter in Europe, a position Ireland occupied in the past. Ireland is now the top paying country in the eurozone and our suckler herd puts us in a position to supply all markets. However, we can expect continued and growing competition from Poland, particularly in manufacturing beef, in European markets.