Despite sterling strengthening over recent weeks towards levels not seen since April 2022, the beef price differential between the UK and Ireland has widened further, reaching 95c/kg on R3 steers at week ending 14 September. (see Figure 1)
With the UK currency trading at €1 = £0.83, it means that Irish beef costs less for buyers that use sterling if the price in euro remains the same.
By the same token, Irish exporters who sell to UK buyers in sterling are receiving more per kilo for the product when it is converted to euro, and farmers might expect to receive some of this extra money.
It should be recognised that there is a time lag between currency movement and impact on prices, but it is striking that at a time when the currency relationship is in favour of Irish exporters, the price gap between Irish and UK beef has widened to 95c/kg – the highest since the middle of October last year.
At that time, sterling was much weaker than the euro, with €1 = £0.87. For the corresponding week last year, Bord Bia data shows the differential at 79c/kg, just 29c/kg in the same week in 2022 and 65c/kg for week ending 11 September 2021.
Irish trade with UK
As Figure 2 shows, in the first seven months of this year, Ireland exported just over 133,000 tonnes of beef to the UK – the highest volume for the past five years.
Figure 2 also shows that despite the ambition to diversify export markets post Brexit, the UK market accounts for 47% of all Irish beef exports between January and July this year.
Quality Assurance schemes
One point of difference between Irish and British beef and sheep production is in the quality assurance schemes. A recent comparison study for the English levy board AHDB has found that the Red Tractor Assurance scheme comes top when compared with assurance schemes in Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Poland and France.
The schemes were assessed by Birnie Consultancy over 14 different categories starting with traceability, documentation and assurance through to environmental protection.
Different weightings were given across the categories to reflect their relative importance, and weightings were applied within each category to recognise the greater importance of some questions compared with others.
Table 1 lists each category and the scores awarded to the Red Tractor and Sustainable Beef and Lamb Assurance (SBLAS) schemes.
Red Tractor wins
When the overall weighted percentage score for each scheme was calculated, Red Tractor came top with a score in the mid 70s, followed by SBLAS in the mid 60s.
The SBLAS actually scored higher on food safety, with pest control measures and storage of food and appropriate feed being offered to animals being noted by the report.
The Red Tractor scheme scored over SBLAS when it came to period of residence on farm for membership.
Access to SBLAS can be obtained after 60 days for cattle and 42 days for sheep, while for Red Tractor, 90 days for cattle and 70 days for sheep is required and Red Tractor got a higher score in this category.
In the husbandry category, the Dutch scheme which is primarily driven by animal welfare scored 90% – well ahead of Red Tractor on 74% – and SBLAS was back in third with a score of 61%.
The report noted that “SBLAS permits castration, disbudding and dehorning, and provides a reasonable level of detail around the management of these schemes, and that castration is permitted without anaesthetic up to six months, though it is recommended.”
The Irish Farmers Journal asked Bord Bia’s Joe Burke for a response to the report’s findings. He said that “the SBLAS scheme has been in place for ten years and is currently under review.
Some of the categories where SBLAS were given lower scores, such as the whole area of pain relief and duration on farm, are being considered as part of that process.”
IFA Livestock chair Declan Hanrahan told the Irish Farmers Journal that “it is understandable that ‘standards’ continue to evolve but the audit process must also evolve to reduce the imposition of the audit on farms and make the process more practical and farmer friendly.”
The Birnie report acknowledged that an updated SBLAS was expected in 2025.
Membership of a quality assurance scheme is a requirement for supplying the major British supermarkets and burger chains, and membership of the SBLAS is a bottom-line requirement for Irish farmers producing cattle to supply these markets.
Any review of SBLAS will look to update the scheme to reflect what is important to customers. It should also extend to the audit process and use technology to reduce the burden of the inspection on farmers.
It is right that we have the ambition to make our scheme the best it can be, but it also has to show it delivers value.
The reality is that the Irish beef price is consistently behind what is paid for the equivalent in Britain, it is just particularly high at the moment as shown in Figure 1.
What is even more disappointing for Irish farmers is that despite being consistently told that it is our grass-fed steer beef that is our unique selling point, for half the year the continental R3 young bull is worth more in the market place than the Irish R3 steer.
There are plenty of complaints from farmers in the UK about the red tape they have to deal with to deliver the Red Tractor scheme, but the bottom line is that they are paid a price for their beef that Irish farmers can only envy.
Farmers have the opportunity to give their views at IFA regional meetings, the first of which was in Cavan this week. A top of the range assurance scheme should bring a better price for the product covered than what the market has been delivering.
UK supermarkets, burger chains and their factory suppliers benefit from cheaper Irish beef to blend with the more expensive UK sourced cattle. Irish farmers are getting the least benefit from this arrangement and that needs to change.