On January 19, Bord Bia - The Irish Food Board held a seminar on Irish meat in Shanghai, and shared the industry's trade results with China in 2021 and the outlook for 2022 with trading partners and industry representatives. In this seminar, OIG conducted an exclusive interview with Chinese manager Conor O'Sullivan.
 
In his view, "Before Chinese consumers mainly ate pork. But now more and more people want to try other protein sources, such as sheepmeat, beef, chicken, and others, such as plantbased protein. Therefore, this diversity and the trend of globalization is a great opportunity for international exports. With the gradual recovery of domestic pork supply, the growth of imported beef and mutton has both exceeded 10%. Beef imports exceeded 1 million tons for the first time in 2018, about 1.03 million tons, and it has grown to 2.33 million tons by 2021 last year, which is equivalent to doubling in three years. So now the domestic consumption upgrade has generated a lot of demand.”
 
"Another point is that, on the whole, the positioning of Irish meat in China is based on nutrition and health. Our cattle and sheep are all grassfed, and the fat content is slightly lower than that of grainfed. Other varieties are also It is very important that grass-fed beef cattle in Ireland, such as Angus cattle and Charolais cattle, are excellent breeds of cattle. In fact, the quality of meat is good, but the fat content is a little lower than that of grain-fed cattle. We found that there are certain of consumers prefer grass-fed, lower-fat meat. I personally prefer grass-fed beef.”
 
"In the long run, we attach great importance to the development trend of the Chinese market and these changes in Chinese consumers. We hope that Irish sheep meat will meet Chinese consumers as soon as possible, and Irish beef will return to the Chinese market as soon as possible. For 2022, I think the future is still very prosperous, which is really worth waiting."