Bord Bia is currently working “with a couple of entrepreneurs” who are interested in exploring opportunities to develop an Irish veal market.
Jim O’Toole, chief executive of Bord Bia, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, that last year the organisation also “worked with a couple of people on a pilot programme around the dynamics of developing a veal industry and we did some trials with a company”.
“Some of the calves that we export live typically go to the Netherlands and they are all for veal production, they are processed in the Netherlands and are typically consumed in Italy and southern France – 15% of the beef consumption in those markets is beef and veal so there is a market for that,” he said.
“There has never been a traditional veal-processing industry in this country and that is probably due to the fact [that] for a long number of years we were constrained by quotas, and also it’s a highly seasonal industry.”
O’Toole also stressed to the joint committee that Bord Bia is “very keen to eliminate the calf slaughterings that are happening at a young age”.
He said Bord Bia “does not support the practice of sending young calves to slaughter” and highlighted to the committee that the technical advisory committee of its Sustainable Dairy Assurance Scheme will meet next week to discuss the issue of young calf slaughter.
Bord Bia
Members of the Oireachtas joint committee also questioned Bord Bia executives at length on a range of issues including its “strategic direction”, branding integrity, Origin Green and the status of grass-fed beef.
They also faced questions from the committee about the financial challenges facing sheep farmers.
Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Jackie Cahill asked Bord Bia’s chief executive if imports from Northern Ireland had any role to play in this.
O’Toole said he did not believe that imports from Northern Ireland could be “directly attributed” to the current difficulties that the lamb market was facing.
“Live imports from Northern Ireland account for 10% of output and carcass meat imports account for a further 10%,” he said.
But he also highlighted that in recent months that “the availability of lamb in our key export markets has increased and also the fact that Asian markets have been disrupted by Covid- 19 has meant that some of the lamb from New Zealand and Australia which normally flows towards China has come towards the European Union”.
O’Toole said he was hopeful that Irish farmers “are out of the worst of that” but said he was very conscious that this would be “cold comfort for the producers who have had to sell lambs in the last couple of weeks”.
“We have seen lamb prices increase,” he told the committee, pointing to the start of Ramadan and Easter as immediate upsides for the lamb sector.
“As lamb production increases we will hopefully see, between now and June, that demand in the market place will increase.
“Our own promotional efforts to support the sector have been ramped up. We have just finished an additional lamb campaign in the domestic market and in that we focused particularly on trying to attract and engage younger consumers to engage in the category.
“Traditionally the cohort that eats the most lamb is a little bit older and we’re trying to recruit new consumers into the category,” O’Toole added.
Separately, members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine also questioned the Bord Bia chief executive on the status of the protected geographical indication (PGI) application for Irish grass-fed beef.
O’Toole said that this was still in progress but he was hopeful that there would be an outcome to the application this year, he also detailed that Bord Bia is “undertaking work to develop a proposition for suckler beef”.