The Irish Government has gone long haul this week, with the Taoiseach and three Government colleagues, including the minister for Agriculture, travelling on a trade mission to South Korea. Given that they are one the world's leading technology economies and Irish interest in the sector, we can see that there is an immediate fit with Ireland. Given their global outlook, it is also logical that South Korea would look towards Ireland from an educational perspective given our use of the English language and position as a gateway to the EU and bridge to the USA.

South Korea should also look at Irish agriculture and our potential to be a supplier of grass fed beef and dairy products that have amongst the lowest carbon footprint of anywhere in the world. With South Korea being a net importer of beef, sheep, pig meat and dairy, they would appear a logical export market for Irish processors.

Ireland exports pig meat to South Korea and while it is a smaller Asian market than China or Japan, we supplied almost 3,500t up to the end of August 2023. We also exported a small quantity of dairy, less than 1,000t during the same period, but no beef or lamb, as we don’t have approval to supply either.

Our exclusion from the market is due to historical links with BSE and while these are long gone and Ireland is now negligible risk for BSE, the highest category possible, several legacy bans remain and South Korea is one of these. The EU has been in the country this week, pushing to get access for Irish and French beef, and Minister McConalogue has reported progress in the effort to secure Irish beef access.

Will it be worthwhile?

At first glance the answer would be an unequivocal yes. They only produce 35% of the beef that they consume annually and USDA estimates that South Korea will import 600,000t carcase weight equivalent this year. The vast majority of this is supplied by the USA and Australia, who between them account for 90% of South Korea’s beef imports with New Zealand, Canada and Mexico making up the rest. Brazil is in the process of securing approval, which is likely to happen at some point in the medium-term future. The other characteristic of the market which should make it enticing, is that it has the highest level of per capita beef consumption in Asia at over 13kg per person annually.

Not clear cut

However, notwithstanding all these favourable attributes, the question remains is about the viability of the market for Irish beef exports to the country. While the US has much higher cattle prices than Ireland at present, their grain fed (and hormone treated) beef is viewed as a premium product in all Asian markets. Australian beef also enjoys a good reputation and is currently excellent value as their farmgate price has fallen to well below Irish price at present.

The other reason there has to be a question mark over this market for Irish beef exports is the experience in Japan. Ireland has had approval to supply Japan, who are estimated to import 750,000t of beef this year by USDA, for several years, but our export volumes have been in decline rather than increasing. So far this year we have exported just 750t of prime beef to Japan, compared with 1,965t in the same period last year. The high point was in 2020 when Ireland exported a still modest 3,322t of beef to Japan, but instead of building on this, beef exports to Japan have collapsed.

Comment

In theory, South Korea would be an excellent market for Irish beef exports, but the recent experience with supplying Japan suggests that it would be unlikely to have any significant impact in the short term. However, the skill in maximising the value of Irish beef is to have as many market options as possible for Irish beef and, therefore, the Government is correct in working to open this and other export markets. Just because they aren’t viable at present, doesn’t mean that it will be always this way and if and when the opportunity arises, it would be good to be ready to take it.