Irish beef market continues to contract

The European beef market remains somewhat out of balance. Buyers and sellers still do not find common ground. Meanwhile, the Irish supply remains quite low, although the demand in the country is also not that great. Beef prices continue to be predominantly under pressure. Meanwhile, insiders in the market indicate that not only the prices of dairy cows, but also those of beef cattle have clearly decreased. Participants report that prices could be as much as 50 cents lower compared to the beginning of last year. On the meat market, prices have, however, decreased significantly less, they indicate. This is remarkable since the demand for beef is not very strong. The hospitality industry struggled in February. Now, this is never a strong month, but insiders in the market report that orders are falling behind considerably.As a result, the market remains out of balance. Sellers are still not willing to lower their prices sufficiently to allow demand to rise back to the levels we were accustomed to last year. This is partly due to the approaching spring. Good weather has already provided a boost to the hospitality industry in recent weeks. The market hopes that spring is nice early on, allowing consumption in food service to pick up again quickly. Irish market remains very tight Beef slaughter numbers in Ireland still lag significantly behind last year's levels. In the first six weeks of the year, the number of cattle slaughtered was as much as 38,900 lower than in the previous year. This is a decrease of as much as 15.8% compared to a year earlier. In week 6, the slaughter figure was even 20.5% lower. In that week, 31,129 cattle were slaughtered. This has contributed to stabilizing the drop in the Irish beef price. Since that week, the price of R-quality bulls has risen slightly again, from $714.10 to $718.89. Partly, the lower production can be attributed to persistent shortages in the Irish market. Like other European markets, the supply of cattle shrank significantly last year. However, there is more happening in Ireland. Traditionally, Ireland has many small cattle farmers who keep a small number of cows alongside a regular job. Due to the increased regulatory pressure in the sector, the number of small businesses is rapidly declining. Although there has also been scaling up, this does not compensate for everything. As a result, we see small slaughterhouses closing at a rapid pace. It is therefore expected that at least part of the contraction is of a structural nature. In addition to the lower supply, the demand for Irish beef has also decreased significantly. The United Kingdom is increasingly sourcing beef from South America and Australia, as the country allows a relatively large share of duty-free imports. On the mainland, the trend of focusing on local chains is not helping the situation either. Germany is increasingly focusing on meat of its own origin. This trend is also visible in the Netherlands. The second-largest supermarket, Jumbo, has made this very concrete. Reporting from Agriland shows that the supermarket wants to fully focus on the Dutch chain. The company is still sourcing from places like Ireland. However, the company wants to gradually reduce this import.