Goodman’s ABP Foods set to be first into US beef market

ABP Foods, the group founded and chaired by beef baron Larry Goodman, looks set to be the first European company to take advantage of the lifting of the US ban on beef from Europe.

The Louth-based company is understood to be on the brink of announcing a major contract with US giant Sysco, one of the world’s largest food distributors.

The deal will see the company’s premium beef sold through the US retail chain Whole Foods, an upmarket grocer that specialises in natural and organic foods.

The reopening of the US market to Irish beef, announced earlier this week, effectively ends a 16-year long embargo on European beef imports in the US, which stems back to the BSE crisis of the 1990s.

It gives the Irish beef sector a first-mover advantage on European rivals at a time of record-high beef prices in the US and a growing consumer preference for grass-based, hormone-free beef, which Ireland specialises in.

ABP Foods is understood to have secured the US contract through its long-standing relationship with Sysco’s Irish subsidiary Pallas Foods.

"We have been in negotiations with a number of leading food service and retail players. However, it is premature to comment on any deal or speculation at this stage," ABP Food Group chief executive Paul Finnerty told The Irish Times.

Opportunity

He described the lifting of the ban on Irish beef imports in the US as a significant opportunity for Ireland’s beef industry.

Mr Finnerty said the company has had a sales manager on the ground in the US for the past two years in advance of the announcement of the ending of the ban.

He commended the Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney, his department and Bord Bia "in helping to achieve this significant milestone for the Irish beef sector".

The Department of Agriculture is understood to be at an advanced stage of approving ABP Foods and Donegal-based Foyle Meats to supply beef to the US market on foot of vetting protocols agreed with the US department of agriculture.

A number of other Irish meat processors are also understood to have applications pending with the department.

In 2013 the Silvercrest plant in Co Monaghan, then owned by ABP Foods, was at the centre of the horse meat scandal in Ireland after it was found to have manufactured a burger that contained horse DNA.

The addition of horse meat to beef products was later found to be a European-wide problem.

Mr Goodman has been the organisation’s executive chairman since 2008.

Originally just ABP, the company was rebranded as ABP Food Group in 2011 to reflect its expansion into the convenience food market.

In Ireland it operates six large beef-processing facilities, accounting for around a quarter of the national kill. It reported annual turnover of €2.3 billion for its latest financial year.