Where’s all the beef going? 

In light of recent controversy, the ICMSA paid particular attention to the detailed figures released recently by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that showed that over 40,000 tonnes of beef was imported to Ireland last year, the equivalent of 118,000 steers based on average carcass weight. The chair of our Livestock Committee, Michael O’Connell, noted that, based on 2024 CSO figures, Ireland produced seven times more beef than it consumed and legitimate questions had to be asked about why anyone would need to import beef in any notable quantities? He added that those questions would only multiply as people realised that the largest single source of this beef being imported into Ireland was Great Britain, which was also the single biggest export market for Irish beef.

However, at the time of writing (end of April), the questions asked by the ICMSA have not been answered. Something about this data did not add up and farmers – and anyone else with an interest in the sector – is entitled to ask where these 40,000 tonnes were going, how it was being sold and consumed, and who was bringing it in? 

Questions

Based on the average carcass weight for steers in 2025 of 346kg, we arrive at an extra 118,000 steers. That would equate to an additional 2,300 cattle per week that processors would have needed to purchase and slaughter. The very first question that arises is why you’d need to import so much beef into a country that exports over 90 per cent of what it produces – multiples of what it consumes? 

The second question is who is responsible for the importation of this product, and we better not be fobbed off with this latest nonsense that this is ‘commercially sensitive information’ or that this part of a ‘contingency plan’. There have always been rumblings of imported beef, but the figures are startling and disturbing in equal measure. Last year was the best year on record for a long time for beef farmers but – by the looks of it – it could have been better still, were it not for this mysteriously large volume of imported beef brought into Ireland

The third question we are asking is even more urgent: how can the largest exporter of beef to Ireland be our closest neighbour, Great Britain, which is also, bizarrely, our biggest single export market for beef? This is mind-boggling and we need to find out what’s going on here.   

Self-sufficient by miles

As a nation, based on 2024 CSO figures, Ireland was 700 per cent self-sufficient in terms of beef production. So, why would we need to import beef at all? The answer is simple: it is a means of controlling cattle prices; it’s a means of controlling price paid to farmers. All of this has to be explored against the background of the Commission forcing through the Mercosur trade agreement. In the face of determined opposition by the ICMSA and others, 300 tonnes of beef was imported to Ireland from Brazil and Argentina. It may be miniscule in the grand scheme of the agreement, but how long has it been coming into Ireland? What customs checks are carried out? What food safety checks are carried out? Can it be guaranteed it is hormone-free and can it be traced to both who sold it and who consumed this beef?

Even after the controversy at the start of this year, 33 tonnes of Brazilian beef were imported in January 2026. Do the people importing this beef not care about the health of the Irish people or the livelihoods of Irish farmers or – as usual – is their profit-line the only consideration? Spring 2026 has been one to forget for finishers between the colossal drop in price from last autumn to the hassle and annoyance of long waiting lists to get cattle slaughtered. 

Explains a lot

Whatever about the waiting time, we are certainly beginning to understand the mysterious drop in price. There were 3,705 tonnes of beef imported in the month of January 2026, which is the equivalent of 10,708 steers based on 2025 average carcass weight. Put very simply, in the four full weeks in January, this would have been the equivalent to an extra 2,700 (approximately) cattle that needed to be killed per week to match the quantity of, most likely, sub-standard beef. That explains why farmers were not being given ‘slots’ in the factories and found it hard to get cattle slaughtered. It also begins to explain the complete hammering that factories have given beef farmers on price this year.

Questions need answering

We are asking Minister Martin Heydon directly to come forward with an explanation for these beef imports. Because as it stands, very serious questions are raised. It is frankly unbelievable that beef imports of these volumes have gone this far unexplained and unquestioned. Well, we are asking the questions now and we’ll go on asking them till we get a full answer. Who’s bringing these volumes in? Where is that beef going and what checks have been done on it and why is Britain the biggest source of the imported beef while it’s also the biggest market for exports of Irish beef? If there’s a rational explanation for this, then the ICMSA and Irish beef farmers are waiting impatiently to hear it.