The Irish beef industry is beginning to benefit from the bird flu scare with export plants gearing up to meet an expected rise in demand in the UK market as consumers turn away from chicken.
Poultry sales have already dropped by up to 10 per cent in parts of the UK as the avian flu crisis deepens in what is Ireland's largest export market for beef.
"We are expecting an upswing in sales of beef within the next 10 days. It has already started in the Home Counties where people are beginning to turn back to beef again as a result of the poultry scare," said the UK export manager of one Irish plant.
The increased demand for beef in the UK and on the Continent has been a factor in the sustained high prices farmers are being paid for their animals.
Cattle prices normally drop immediately after Christmas but, for the first time in three years, prices being paid by factories have risen during this period.
Factories have been having difficulties sourcing cattle ready for slaughter, and this has forced up prices, especially in the west and north-west, by as much as 10 cent per kilo. Figures from An Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, showed that the throughput at factories had dropped by nearly one-sixth over the middle two weeks in January, down to almost 30,000 head per week. The latest figures show that processing was down overall by 7.5 per cent in the last week of January.
Throughput in the export plants during that same week was down by 4,000 cattle. For the month overall it dropped to 145,451, compared to 157,243 in the same period in 2003.
Central Statistics Office figures indicate there are 65,000 fewer cattle aged over one year in the State compared to this time last year.
In addition, there remains a deficit of cattle in the European Union to supply the market. The shortfall has been estimated at 400,000 tonnes.
Irish producers say beef imports from Latin America into the EU are the greatest barrier to increasing sales into Continental Europe, where prime cuts of Brazilian and Argentinian beef are sold cheaper than quality Irish cuts.
Another factor helping to keep Irish prices high is the popular Atkins diet, which allows dieters eat as much beef as they want.