Beef Sector
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-14
============================================================

Martin Heydon (FG), Kildare South

Ireland exported almost 458,000 metric tonnes of beef in 2025. It is an absolutely colossal figure when we think of the scale of the industry and what it is worth to our overall economy. Although the volume of exports was lower than in recent years, the total value of primary beef exports increased by €542 million, or 17%, to reach a record €3.6 billion, according to the Central Statistics Office, CSO. Whereas volumes to the UK were 6% lower in 2025 compared to 2024, the value of those shipments grew by more than €274 million, or 19%. Similarly, the value of consignments to other EU markets increased substantially by almost €313 million or 21% in 2025, while volumes recorded a modest 2% decline relative to 2024. The UK accounted for 46% of Irish beef exports by value and 42% by volume. Other international markets accounted for 11% of export volume but 5% of total value.
Food Vision 2030, the industry-led strategy for the agrifood sector, aims to increase the value of agrifood products, including beef. The ambition is to build on sustainable value growth by supporting agrifood exports and continuing to develop market opportunities at home and abroad. The figures clearly indicate the success of Food Vision 2030 in achieving that.
I have ensured that farmers can continue to improve the competitiveness and productivity of their suckler, dairy beef and mixed enterprises through a record level of national and EU co-funded supports. I am providing over €83 million in direct targeted supports for the suckler sector in 2026. In addition to the ongoing suckler carbon efficiency programme, which is worth over €51 annually to participants, the national dairy beef weighing scheme is currently open for applications and the 2026 beef welfare scheme will open in mid-August. The dairy weighing scheme, which supported 18,300 farmers last year, has a budget of €4 million in 2026. The beef welfare scheme, which supported 24,500 farmers last year, has a budget of €28 million in 2026.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-14