Irish beef arrives at Irish Embassy
February 13, 2015 |06:13 PM
Irish beef — legal in the United States for the first time in 16 years — arrived at the Irish ambassador’s residence this week, brought by Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney.
Irish Ambassador to the United States Anne Anderson hosted a party to serve Irish beef to the American agricultural establishment on Tuesday evening.
Irish beef tartare
Coveney met earlier that day with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Agriculture Undersecretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services Kevin Concannon represented USDA at the event. Darci Vetter, U.S. chief agricultural negotiator, was the highest ranking official from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to attend.
The United States banned Irish beef after the outbreak of mad cow disease in Europe in the 1990s. Last year, the Agriculture Department, after an inspection of Irish slaughter facilities, decided that Ireland had become the first European country to have a beef food safety inspection system equivalent to the United States.
Coveney thanked Vilsack for making the decision to review the U.S. rule on imports from countries that have experienced bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or mad cow disease) and declared Ireland to be a safe country from which to import.
Coveney also praised the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association for not seeing Irish beef “as a threat.”
Built-in niche for Irish beef in U.S.
Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, which has an office in New York, will market the beef initially to high-end restaurants, with particular attention to the millions of Irish-Americans in the United States.
Coveney noted that the United States has such a large Irish-American population because Ireland failed to deal with food shortages in the 1800s. The Irish beef, he said, comes from farms very similar to those the ancestors of Irish-Americans left in the 19th century.
Explaining the appeal of Irish beef, Coveney said, “The flavor shows where the grass grows. Irish beef is produced on the back of a grass-based system.”
Ireland has a mild, wet climate very different from the United States, and the beef is organic; the cows have not been fed hormones, he noted.
Irish beef will be a niche market here, but he noted that Ireland is the biggest beef exporter in the European Union. Irish farmers are glad to be in the U.S. market because it is the biggest market for beef in the world, and “if you’re not in this market, you’re not in the race at all,” Coveney said.
Anderson noted that the beef served at the embassy on Tuesday evening was prepared by two chefs: Cathal Armstrong, a Dublin native who is chef at Restaurant Eve — an Alexandria, Va., establishment where President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have dined; and Jean Paul Jeunet, a French chef from Jura who was head of the Chefs’ Irish Beef Club, which Anderson established during her posting as Irish ambassador to France from 2005 to 2009.
Armstrong said he hopes to serve Irish beef in his restaurant within a month.
There was a report this week that Sysco Corp. had reached a $17 million deal with ABP Foods Group to sell Irish beef in the United States. Shipments are expected to being in March, according to Meat + Poultry.
Anderson said she was thrilled that Irish beef is now legal in the United States, but she could not help noting, “If Irish beef is here, can Irish lamb be far behind?”
▪ Meat + Poultry — Sysco, Irish food processor ink beef deal
Sharon Bomer Lauritsen of USTR and Jack Bobo of the state department.
Karen Coyle of the New York office of Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, talks with Cathal Armstrong, who prepares Irish menus at Restaurant Eve in Alexandria, Va.
Phelim O'Neill of The Irish Farmers Journal talks to Kent Bacus of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
Ambassador Anne Anderson poses with Jim Miller, the former Agriculture undersecretary for farm and foreign agricultural services who is now with Growth Energy; and Chandler Keys, former head of the Washington office of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association who now has his own consulting firm. (Jerry Hagstrom/The Hagstrom Report)
