The Agri-Food Regulator has emphasised that the published beef prices for mince beef on its website are "not representative of the overall value attainable by mince beef".

The regulator was responding to a query from Agriland on the significant increase in selling prices for minced meat since March that have been published on the Agri-Food Regulator website,

Agri-Food Regulator head of price and market analysis Robert Levins said: "In regard to the published beef prices for mince beef, it should be noted that the price published is specifically for beef mince sold in 500g packs and with 5% fat content only.

"This could be considered as a premium consumer beef mince product and is not representative of the overall value attainable by mince beef."

Levins further clarified that "the overall beef mince production output pricing is included in the composite hindquarter and forequarter pricing as appropriate."

The table and graph below details the weekly selling prices for beef forequarter, beef hindquarter, and beef minced meat as published on the Agri Food Regulator website:

Agriland also asked the Agri-Food Regulator if there is any data available on the selling prices for minced meat from Quality Assured (QA) cattle versus minced meat selling prices from cull cows.

The regulator responded: "There is currently no data available to the regulator to identify the value of mince beef from Quality Assured prime cattle compared to cull cattle."

The method for calculating the prices published by the regulator uses an average of the yield data for all bovine animals, captured by each processor from the previous year, to weight the value of cuts produced from the carcass.

These weighted values are then reconstituted back into forequarter and hindquarter sections by each processor, as defined by a standardised cutting technique, to produce composite values for each section.

The Agri-Food Regulator's data-sharing agreement with the four largest processers that provide data to the Department of Agriculture food and the Marine (DAFM) under SI 449/2021 stipulates that the office will receive only the national kill volume aggregated values from DAFM for each of the three published values.

Under the legislation that allows for this reporting, there is no requirement to report on the different values attainable by different bovine animals.

Each processer is only producing a single weekly submission for the three values published, which are Beef Forequarter, Beef Hindquarter, and a selling price for Beef Minced Meat (5% fat content) sold in 500g packs.