A report released by Eurostat comprises a comparison of (consumer) meat prices (for 2019) across Europe.

The report indicates that Romania had the lowest meat prices across much of Europe. At the other end of the spectrum, the report indicates that Austria had the highest prices, followed by Luxembourg and France.

As shown on this infographic (below – which shows price indices rather than actual prices in a given currency), Irish (consumer) meat prices appeared to be just above the EU average, while Bulgaria and Poland joined Romania at the bottom of the list.

Meat

Image source: Eurostat

An interesting point to note from the report is that the three countries included in the study from outside the EU – Switzerland, Iceland and Norway – were home to (consumer) meat prices that exceed those of any EU countries.

The UK, however, fell below the EU average. Its (consumer) meat prices were apparently similar to those seen in Malta and Slovenia.

‘No signals that there was any cause for concern’

In other meat-related news – here in Ireland – Linda Stuart-Trainor (director of the Prepared Consumer Foods group of Food Drink Ireland) has said “there were no signals that there was any cause for concern” when speaking about Covid-19 outbreaks in meat factories.

Also Read: ‘There were no signals that there was any cause for concern’ in meat factories

She said that there has been “a lot of unfair generalisation” made about the meat sector recently.

Speaking on Newstalk, she said now that society is opening up more, people “were told to expect that there would be clusters from time to time”.

While the virus might be identified in factories, it is certainly not created there.

“We need to remember that despite all our nation’s efforts, Covid-19 is still out there in the community.

“It’s all part of the movement of people from the community into factories and back out again. We need to figure out a way to manage this because we have to keep essential businesses operating.”