In the first half of 2020, Ireland exported more beef to China than the US.
Between January and October 2022, the US exported 243,198 tonnes of beef worth $2.2bn (€2.07bn) to China and Hong Kong.
To put this in context, Ireland’s total beef exports to all countries was 431,839t for this period.
What makes China different?
The short answer is that it has been a rapidly growing market for beef imports over the past decade.
In 2012, it imported just over 70,000t of beef and this has grown year on year to reach a massive 2.4m tonnes to the end of November 2022.
China is now a considerable distance ahead of the second -biggest importer of beef in the world the US, which imported 1.1m tonnes in 2022.
China’s imports account for over 20% of all beef that is traded internationally.
While there has been growth in other Asian markets such as Japan and South Korea over the past decade, no market in history has expanded as rapidly as China for beef.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts that it has reached a plateau, although it underestimated its growth potential for 2022.
Been here before
Getting back into this market is a resumption of a journey that began with the original approval in 2018.
That year, Ireland exported a small amount of beef, but in 2019, 10,287t was exported to mainland China and up to the ban in May 2020, Ireland had exported 6,500t.
It had been expected that the suspension of exports in May 2020 would be temporary, but it has lasted until now. This contrasts with Brazil, which had the same type of BSE case in September 2021, but it was cleared by China to resume exports by mid-December 2021.
However, the fact that Irish factories were building up business nicely in 2020 means that they should be able to hit the road running when the market opens again.
The infrastructure has been in place for several years, so logistics won’t be a problem
The infrastructure has been in place for several years, so logistics won’t be a problem.
What will be of particular interest and benefit to farmers is that most of the large Irish beef factories are approved for export to China, unlike the US, where only a handful have approval.
That means that every finisher in Ireland should have access to a factory approved to export to China.
Where has China been getting its beef?
The main supply base for China’s beef imports has been the big exporting South American countries of Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay.
Brazil is the biggest, supplying just under 1m tonnes in the first 11 months of 2022, 40% of total Chinese beef imports.
Argentina is next on 446,000t, followed by Uruguay on 331,000t.
In the same period, 163,000t was imported from the US, lower than the US export figures, which also include Hong Kong as well as mainland China.
It is fair to say efforts to diversify export markets for beef beyond the UK and EU have been underwhelming to date.
We have been in the US since 2015 and despite high-profile campaigns, our volume to that market halved in 2022 to just 3,800t.
Similarly with Japan, which has been open since 2013, we exported just 2,400t there between January and October 2022. These are the second- and third-largest beef-importing countries in the world.
However, China is different, as it has continued to grow its demand and new business has been available every year over the past decade, so there is no need to displace another supplier.
If that continues in 2023, Ireland is well placed to grab its share of that market and a 30,000t target should still be attainable.
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