Teagasc BeefCon21: Farmers told global beef demand set for major boost

The second part of the Teagasc Beef Conference 2021 (BeefCon21) got underway last night, Wednesday, December 8, at 8:00p.m.

During the online seminar, Teagasc’s beef enterprise leader, Paul Crossan outlined that while the Irish beef sector does have to do its share to reduce emissions, he stressed that when compared to the carbon footprint of beef production in other countries: “We already have a very efficient system.”

Continuing, Crossan explained: “In international terms, Irish beef systems produce in and around 20kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e)/kg of beef. The global average is in the mid 40s.”

He explained that the global demand for beef is expected to grow significantly by 2030.

“We’re currently consuming about 60 million tonnes of beef [globally] and the expectation – looking at the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) projections – is that figure will go to 70 or 80 million tonnes of beef if you take a high growth scenario or a low growth scenario.”

Crossan outlined: “We will have to be producing an extra 10–20 million tonnes of beef [globally] by 2030, so certainly contracting beef [production] in efficient countries is not the solution to reducing emissions so we have to be very careful in terms of the global context here.”

Teagasc’s head of rural economy development programme, Kevin Hanrahan, drew attention to a concept at EU level that is currently being discussed known as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM).

He explained: “The EU may start to tax imports so as to prevent carbon leakage.”

The proposal has not been introduced as of yet, but has been discussed in Brussels.

Continuing, Hanrahan said: “It could happen for things like steel but also potentially for things like beef where production in the EU is offset by higher-intensity production elsewhere. That doesn’t do anything for the global level of emissions.”