The growing price gap between British and Irish beef factories is finally beginning to crack as Northern Irish buyers become more active in Southern marts.
Kilkenny Mart reported that heifers sold with “remarkable” speed, as Northern agents helped increase prices by up to €70 per head.
“We haven’t had as many Northern buyers since before Foot and Mouth struck,” said Kilkenny auctioneer, George Candler.
He said that the Northern customers were happy to re-test animals at the Border in order to secure numbers.
Beef heifers were selling for anywhere between €2/kg and €2.50/kg at Cillín Hill last week.
The surge in Northern interest is believed to be driven by Scottish processors who have been very active in Northern marts since the middle of the summer, according to Ballymena Mart auctioneer, Tom Symington.
Heifers sold with remarkable speed at Kilkenny mart
Active
“There’s been up to 400 cattle a week heading to Scotland from the Antrim region alone over the last couple of months. Up to 80pc are being bought direct from the farmyard but the agents are also reasonably active at the marts, paying an average of €2.70/kg,” he said.
Scottish processors are paying up to €4.89 excluding VAT, a price which is up to 9pc ahead of prices in England.
British prices continued to pull further ahead of prices in the Republic in the latter half of September.
Irish farmers lost €60/hd in one week alone when R3 steers dropped 9c/kg while their British counterparts saw their returns increase by 8c/kg.
During the same seven days in the third week in September, the gap between the price paid on both sides of the Irish Sea for R3 heifers increased by 9c/kg.
Bord Bia data shows that Irish R3 steer VAT exclusive prices trailed British equivalents by 89c/kg on September 21. Irish heifer prices were 71c/kg behind.
The price movements ensured a doubling of the difference between British and Irish cattle prices over the course of one month.
ICMSA beef chairman, Michael Guinan, said that prices in Irish meat plants for R3 steers had fallen by over 10pc since early July.
“Meanwhile, German and British prices have increased and France has only seen a 5pc decrease,” he said.
Irish R3 steer prices have been 20c/kg behind the EUaverage over the last year and 50c/kg behind Britain.
On average, Irish meat prices were 4c/kg below Germany and 14c/kg behind France.
The ICMSA claim that meat prices in Ireland have only increased 1pc since August 2012, compared to increases of 3-8pc in Europe.
“Even with an increase in the national kill of 10pc forecasted for 2013, it will still be the third- lowest kill in 15 years,” said Mr Guinan.
Meanwhile, the amount of business Irish meat processors are winning in premium markets in Germany has more than doubled in the last three years.
Since 2010 sales have climbed to the point where they are expected to breach the €100m barrier for the first time this year. Exports have grown by another 10pc this year, bringing total volumes to a predicted 16,500t, according to Bord Bia.
(Source – Irish Independent – Darragh McCullough and Martin Ryan – 08 October 2013)