Beef battling in a recession
A survey in Britain has laid bare one of the major causes of low cattle prices in Ireland, and raised serious questions about how beef is marketed.
Basically, British shoppers have responded to hard times by buying two thirds of their beef in the form of mince and stew, according to a survey by Kantar Wordpanel, a leading international provider of consumer panel market research.
A look at the shop prices of different beef cuts reveals why this is a very important finding for Ireland’s beef industry, which sends more than 40% of its output to Britain.
(However, it was British farmers who have brought this to public attention; they are losing out also.)
Fresh mince is the cheapest beef product in British shops, averaging only £4 per kg, and it accounts for 50% of fresh beef sales in Britain.
Stewing steak retails at only £7 or £8 per kg. Between them, these lowest priced cuts account for almost two thirds of beef sales in Britain.
The top priced cuts are steaks and roasting joints, which can cost the consumer £17 to £19 per kg — but these make up only 36% of the retail beef on offer.
Mince sales are increasing each year, and the National Beef Association which represents British cattle farmers fears the sector has no chance of prospering if the cheap beef cuts trend continues.
Here in Ireland, with a huge row going on between farmers and processors over the quality payment system, it is ironic that many of our beef consumers are going as far down the quality chain as they can.
At least processors here are aware of the problem, and they say that the overwhelming issue facing them, not only in Ireland but across Europe, is the impact of the recession on consumption or retail spending power.
It has intensified competition with cheaper meats such as pigmeat or poultry meat, but also within beef, with consumers moving down the value chain.
What they are not saying is whether better marketing could solve the problem.
According to Bord Bia, our beef exports go to 70 of the top retail chains throughout Britain and the continental EU.
But that is not necessarily a good thing, if beef is becoming more and more a giveaway item at retail level.
But perhaps we have to be thankful that anyone is still eating our beef.
In Britain, 60,000 tonnes less beef was eaten last year than the year before, a drop of 5% in consumption, attributed to the economic downturn. As the largest net exporter of beef in the northern hemisphere and the fourth largest beef exporter in the world, with €1.4 billion in export earnings per year, from beef, Ireland should be leading the search for a marketing solution to the mince and stew trend.
Perhaps the answer is to concentrate more on the ready consumer foods market.
That way, the beef industry can get a bigger profit cut out of the popular meals like lasagne, spaghetti bolognese, chilli con carne, shepherds pie or burgers, into which shoppers are putting the mince they buy for £4 per kg.
Or, as the National Beef Association suggests, processors should copy craft retail butchers who have been more imaginative by selling appropriate forequarter cuts for steaks instead of mincing it all.
For example, using seam butchery methods, the feather muscle which normally goes for braising, dicing or mincing can be turned into a ‘flat iron steak’ that is extremely tender, succulent and juicy, and when matured correctly, can rival rump or sirloin.
