Today the Minister of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed TD launched the Bord Bia Beef Market Tracking Tool. This tool was devised in response to requests at the Beef Talks of August/September this year for enhanced market transparency. Bord Bia committed to developing a Beef Market Price Index based on three components; cattle price index, beef market price index and an offal indicator.

The Bord Bia Beef Marketing Tool which is available via the Bord Bia website at https://www.bordbia.ie/farmers-growers/farmers/prices-markets/beef-market-tracking, includes the composite vs benchmark price, an offal indicator, and wholesale and retail prices indices.

Minister Creed said he was pleased that his Department and agencies were continuing to progress the commitments which they signed up to under the Agreement of 15 September on the beef sector, noting that the tender process for other studies committed to under the agreement had also commenced.

Minister Creed noted ‘that initiatives such as the Bord Bia Beef Market Tracking Tool are essential in giving stakeholders information on which to base their decisions. He said that his Department had listened to calls for increased transparency in the sector and was making every effort to contribute to this.’

Tara McCarthy, CEO of Bord Bia stated, “Bord Bia is happy to publish the Beef Market Index as part of our commitments to the September 15^th Beef Agreement. The information, will be updated on an ongoing basis and is designed to track overall trends in beef cattle, wholesale, retail and 5^th quarter prices. We will continue to work with the Beef Market Taskforce over the coming months to further develop the range of market information available to farmers.”

The latest update on the Beef Sector Agreement is available on the Department website at https://www.agriculture.gov.ie/farmingsectors/beef/beeftaskforce

ENDS

Date Released: 21 November 2019