The statistics for beef exports in December, published this week by CSO, confirm our ongoing dependence on the UK as the main market for Irish beef.
The December figures complete the beef export picture for 2016.
Ireland in total exported 526m tonnes of beef in 2016, worth €2.2bn. Of this, 234,000t went to Britain and a further 31,000t to Northern Ireland, which combined represents 265,000t of our total exports or just over half of all exports.
Sales to the north were mainly carcase beef for further processing.
France is the next main market, taking 52,000t, followed by the Netherlands on 39,000t, Sweden on 27,000t, Italy on 22,000t and Germany on almost 17,000t.
Overall the UK and EU account for 91% of Irish beef and offal exports in 2016.
Non-EU markets
Outside the EU, the US market struggles to take hold, with 1,800t sold there in 2016.
However, it may take encouragement from the dairy industry who opened that market 20 years ago with just 300t of sales.
The biggest markets outside the EU for Irish beef were Hong Kong on 16,000t and the Philippines on 14,000t. Overall non-EU sales represented 47,000t of beef and offal.
Read more
This is a subscriber-only article
SHARING OPTIONS: