Brazil beef not only factor in cattle price slump

Stephen Cadogan

Exporters here depend heavily on the UK, which took 264,000 of the 493,000 tonnes exported from Ireland in 2004 (the continental EU took 174,000 tonnes and international markets took 55,000 tonnes).

With Ireland exporting about 88% of its beef, developments in the UK market are crucial and have a big bearing on the beef cattle price cut of E150 per head since June.