As the Irish beef industry continues to benefit from strong global demand, with prices 16% higher than at the same time last year and exports set to exceed €1.7 billion, the longer term performance of the sector and the achievement of the Food Harvest 2020 targets will depend on its capacity to objectively differentiate itself in the marketplace based on its green credentials, according to Bord Bia.
Over the past five months, following the success of its pilot programme, Bord Bia has been rolling out its carbon footprint initiative across more than 7,000 Irish beef farms, with all 32,000 member farms in its Quality Assurance Scheme set to receive their first sustainability audit by the end of next year. Using a calculation model appropriate to Irish conditions, developed in close collaboration with Teagasc and accredited by The Carbon Trust* in the UK, Bord Bia is collecting data from up to 500 farms per week through an initiative that is unrivalled anywhere in the world.
The Food Harvest 2020 export growth target for the sector has recently been revised upwards from 20% to 40%, and the strong export performance in 2011, when exports are expected to grow by 9% represents positive progress towards this target. According to Bord Bia, the export marketing environment is expected to remain favourable well into 2012, driven by expanding global demand and slowing world supplies. But at a time when European consumer demand has been weakened by economic difficulties and resistance to rising prices, it has never been more important that the industry continues to work towards differentiating and enhancing its market profile in a region which accounts for more than 95% of its exports. Embracing environmental sustainability will be critical to achieving this goal.
Over the coming weeks, Bord Bia, working in conjunction with Teagasc, will provide individual and specific feedback and advice to each of the audited farms, while outlining how efficiencies and cost saving opportunities can help farmers lower their emissions. From October, all farmers will routinely receive, within three weeks of audit detailed results of the performance of their beef enterprise relative to their peers, in "dashboard format" against key measures that determine their carbon footprint. Results of Bord Bia's pilot scheme showed a variation of as much as 40% in the footprint across farms, highlighting how significant improvements in efficiency can be realized, improving profitability while reducing the carbon footprint.
Extending the Sustainability Agenda
Bord Bia is in the meantime working to extend its assurance scheme to build further on Irish farming's strengths by developing a framework to capture farm performance in relation to other sustainability measures including in particular water and biodiversity. A pilot programme is also well advanced in relation to the processing and packaging stages of the supply chain, to develop a processing footprint, again working with the Carbon Trust to achieve accreditation prior to integration with the Beef Quality Assurance Scheme.
The sustainability agenda is also being extended to other sectors, starting with the dairy sector, which will be facilitated by the fact that almost half of all Irish dairy farms are already members of the Beef Quality Assurance Scheme in relation to their beef enterprises. Bord Bia and Teagasc are working initially with Glanbia on their sustainability programme. Once again the farm element will be the initial focus and Bord Bia has engaged with the Carbon Trust on the development of a dairy footprint model. The pilot programme on 100 dairy farms will be completed by December, with the model being rolled out across the entire sector in 2012.