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On November 10th, 2021, Ireland took home a record-breaking 46 gold medals in the 2021 World Steak Challenge – a first for any country in the competition’s six-year history.

Irish meat suppliers ABP Cahir, Dawn Meats and Kepak and retailers including Lidl Ireland and SuperValu were among the winners to emerge triumphant at the annual competition, which was held at Dublin’s FIRE Steakhouse & Bar

The winners also included Irish meat exporters Ashbourne Meat and Liffey Meats, as well as Higgins Butchers, James Whelan Butchers, FX Buckley and Martin Jennings.

Judging was blind and conducted by an international panel of more than 50 independent experts including meat scientists, master butchers, grillers and specialist steak chefs. Each steak was judged on its own merits against internationally agreed technical criteria, raw and cooked.

All 46 gold-medal-winning Irish beef cuts were reared on a grass-fed diet with Sirloin proving to be the most popular steak securing 19 gold medals

Irish Angus Cross was the most popular breed for the Irish steaks, followed by Hereford and Aberdeen Angus.

 

one cooked and one raw steak

For a full list of winners, visit https://worldsteakchallenge.com/live/en/page/winners-2021 or contact your local Bord Bia office at Kieran.Fitzgerald@bordbia.ie

Milk collections in Ireland are up almost 6.5% in the first nine months of 2021, while exports are look on track to exceed €5 billion for the third year running.

Butter and cheese are the largest categories by volume accounting for 18% and 17% of all exports, respectively. Over 90% of this volume is going to the key markets of Europe, UK and North America with strong growth also seen in milk powders to Asia and Africa.

In a European context, this positive performance is set against a backdrop of stable milk production, with declines in output in the key producers of France and Germany. Soaring input, processing and logistics costs, which have disrupted the global supply chain also had an impact on performance.

Sustainability has proven to be a fundamental differentiator for Irish dairy as the Irish food industry boasts the world’s only national food and drink sustainability programme – Origin Green, which is evolving and adapting to market demands, and now facilitated the measurement of indirect emissions (scope 3)

In 2021, the Irish dairy industry has pivoted to offer “Grass-Fed” certification through an independently audited programme that allows verifiable grass-fed claims to be made in relation to Irish dairy products. Products that qualify to carry this standard can claim that dairy included has been produced from cows with a diet of at least 95% grass that have been on pasture for at least 240 days in the previous year.

For more information on Irish dairy suppliers or on how you can use the Bord Bia grass-fed standard please contact dairyteam@bordbia.ie or contact your local Bord Bia office at Kieran.Fitzgerald@BordBia.IE

 

Bord Bia’s recently launched study, Seafood Futures: Four Marketplaces of Tomorrow  explores what viable strategic choices will create the next decade of sustainable growth for Irish seafood exporters and their customers. We have combined strategic growth models with the future scenarios and drivers of demand, to really understand what the ‘Marketplaces of Tomorrow’ might look like; four key marketplaces emerged:

  1. Scale Biz will focus on consolidation and collaboration in the production of cheaper protein as an undifferentiated commodity.
  2. Smart Fish will feature a hybrid approach of smart pricing and product differentiation.
  3. Blue Ocean will leverage similar or adjacent resources to diversify into high value categories.
  4. Green Tales will see focused differentiation within the Sustainability marketplace.

For each marketplace, the study proposed five opportunity platforms, which serve as thought starters for innovation projects with key customers. By leveraging these platforms, suppliers and customers can better connect to the needs and demands of tomorrow’s consumers and work towards a sustainable and profitable future in the marketplaces of tomorrow. If you are interested in a full debrief of this study please contact Kieran.Fitzgerald@BordBia.IE