A group of Algerian cattle buyers is currently in Ireland seeking to secure thousands of cattle for export, according to Emerald Isle Beef Producers.
The three buyers who arrived for a two-day visit yesterday (Wednesday, September 27) will tour six Irish farms today and are planning to inspect more tomorrow.
The buyers are looking for 6,000 finished continental bulls and bullocks, another 6,000 continental weanlings and for 1,500 in-calf Friesian heifers for export to Algeria.
Eamon Corley, one of the founders of Emerald Isle Beef Producers, told Agriland that the buyers are also exploring the possibility of exporting cattle “in carcass form” from Ireland to Algeria through “a contract killing arrangement”.
It is understood that the buyers have been sourcing cattle from France for the past three years.
Cattle buyers
Emerald Isle Beef Producers, which previously shipped 1,300 cattle to Algeria, is aiming to secure a year-long arrangement with the cattle buyers, which would include a benchmark for price.
“We’re hoping to set up a deal with them and see if we can agree terms. First of all we must see [if] they like the cattle,” Corley said.
He noted that Ireland is not the only option open to the buyers to fulfil their demand, but they would be in a position to source all of the cattle required from Ireland “if everything stacks up”.
“They have other outlets they could get cattle from, like South America and places like that,” he added.
Corley urged any farmers with large numbers of suitable cattle to contact the producer organisation.
Established in 2019, Emerald Isle Beef Producers is one of Ireland’s first beef producer organisations comprised of several hundred beef farmers from right across the island of Ireland.