Opportunity to fill EU beef gap

The growing deficit between EU beef production and consumption offers UK producers plenty of opportunities once current restrictions are lifted.

And, according to Jean-Luc Meriaux, secretary general of the European Meat Trade Association, beef prices across Europe will remain strong this year and next.

Speaking at the Scottish Association of Meat Wholesalers conference in Edinburgh, Mr Meriaux pointed out that beef production for the EU-15 this year is forecast to be 7.25m tonnes – some 382,000t short of EU demand. And that gap would widen further next year, to some 464,000t, he said.

Imports, mainly from South America, would increase, possibly reaching 600,000t this year, with as much as a sixth of that coming in at full tariff, while exports from the EU would continue to fall because of the imbalance between supply and demand.

“We are going to have a shortage of beef production until 2010 at least,” said Mr Meriaux.

The challenge for the UK industry was to “get out there with a good message”, he added.