The Bord Bia Meat Marketing Seminar has heard that the EU needs beef from Mercosur countries to make up for reduced production in Europe.

Rupert Claxton, from meat market analysis business Gira, spoke at the event to give an update on the global meat market outlook.

The Meat Marketing Seminar is an annual event for Irish meat exporters and stakeholders, and features several speakers involved in the sector, on topics including the latest meat market trends and developments, and providing updates on technical and marketing knowledge.

The event comes at a time when the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement is top of the agenda in the agri-food sector, specifically the beef sector.

The deal would allow an additional 99,000t of beef from Mercosur enter the EU at a much reduced tariff rate.

The view of the trade deal among many Irish and EU sector stakeholders has been negative, although this is not a view shared by Claxton.

Commenting on Mercosour beef and the increased tariff allowance, he said "it will come, it will fill it".

"Probably the biggest risk around that will be if they came and targeted one specific product [or] one specific market. That’s not their game. They don’t want to come to get the lowest price they can, they want to come to achieve the best price they can," Claxton said.

"The reality is Europe needs that product," the market analyst said, highlighting that beef production in Europe is declining.

He said that beef production in Europe is challenged by the cost of production, environmental regulation, welfare regulation, as well as generational challenges.

"We've got generational challenges...How do we prop up the production we have. But I don't see production in Europe going up," Claxton added.

He said that this is "a challenge and we have to react to to it".

He said the additional 99,000t of beef from Mercosur at a reduced tariff only accounts for small portion of the overall market.

Claxton also pointed out that the US is "desperately short" of beef, suggesting that the Mercosur countries may divert product to that market.

Farmer concerns

Claxton's appraisal of the EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement contrasted with the view of the EU-wide farm organisation Copa Cogeca, a representative of whom also spoke at today's Meat Marketing Seminar.

Copa Cogeca senior policy advisor Ksenija Simonovic said that, following the signing of the agreement, which is expected to take place tomorrow (Saturday, January 17) in Paraguay, the European Commission can then decide "at any point" to provisionally implement this agreement without waiting for the vote of the European Parliament.

"It doesn't mean they can do it right away, but it is the leverage they wanted to have in view of next Wednesday, and next Wednesday in the European Parliament we have a vote on a resolution to refer the agreement to the European Court of Justice," Simonovic said.

"This vote will be crucial…and that is why we will be there in Strasbourg protesting for two days. And also, the work of the members of the parliament that represent [Irish] constituencies are really key," she said.

"If this [vote on referral to court] doesn't go through, we are looking at the final vote on the Mercosur deal in the parliament sometime in April…and that will be a 'yes' or 'no' vote by simple majority. The work in parliament will be crucial in the next months.