Beef and lamb export markets are of major significance to Northern Ireland’s overall economy. according to Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) chief executive, Colin Smith.
And he considers the scale of this enterprise even more significant.
The LMC representative pointed out that Northern Ireland – with a population of approximately two million people – produces enough food to feed five times that number, underscoring the vital importance of export markets to the region’s agri-food economy.
Smith said: “At the core of this output is the production of Farm Quality Assured beef and lamb.
“Identifying and securing high-value markets for red meat is more critical than ever, especially in light of significant political and economic developments over the past three years.”
“These include a change of UK government and the negotiation of key trade agreements with major global players such as the US, EU, Australia, New Zealand, and India.
“The evolving international trade landscape, combined with fluctuating global tariffs, presents increasing complexity for red meat exporters.”
According to Smith, the navigation of these challenges will be essential to ensuring long-term profitability and sustainability for Northern Ireland’s red meat sector.
He fully recognises the need for Northern Ireland’s beef and lamb sectors to be fully cognisant of all these factors.
But there is also a political dimension to all of this, which could be of an even more fundamentally significant.
Reflecting on the evolving political landscape, Smith commented on the impact of recent UK government decisions.
“The new Labour government has now been in office for a year. And during that time, it appears to have prioritised food security over food self-sufficiency.
“This shift in focus has raised concerns within the farming community.”
Smith claimed that support for Labour among farmers “is clearly waning”, which he said was down to “the government’s recent handling of agricultural issues”.
“Inheritance tax reforms are just one example and many within the sector feel farming has been sacrificed at the expense of other interests – particularly in trade negotiations such as those with the US,” he said.
Beef and lamb export market
In the view of the LMC CEO, these developments underscore growing tensions between policy direction and the needs of UK agriculture at a time when global competitiveness is more vital than ever.
The aforementioned agreements follow on from free trade deals with Australia and New Zealand arrived at by the previous Conservative governments.
When fully operational, these arrangements could provide beef export quotas of 170,000t and 60,000t annually for the respective countries.
Smith said: “But that’s not the end of the story. The EU continues to progress a trade deal with the Mercosur block which could see almost 100,000t of beef from South American countries coming into Europe on an annual basis.
“This may not impact directly on the UK beef market. But it could have a very significant indirect effect.”
So the question then arises: what happens to the significant tonnages of UK beef that are currently exported to the EU in the wake of the Mercosur deal’s full implementation?
“The prospect of significantly reduced beef export trading levels from the UK to Europe is a very real one in these circumstances,” said Smith.
But even in the here and now the commission’s chief executive is concerned about imported beef making its way on to UK supermarket shelves.
He explained: “UK supermarkets are the most significant purchasers of farm quality beef and lamb produced in Northern Ireland.
“It is crucially important that this commitment to Northern Ireland’s red meat sector is maintained into the future.”
