A new multi-million contract to supply South Korea with monthly shipments of beef should bolster trade throughout the UK.

The contract between Dawn Meats and a leading company in South Korea, is to provide beef for the foodservice, retail and manufacturing customers across the country.

The agreement comes following the announcement by the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, that South Korea has agreed to open its market to Irish beef for the first time.

Dawn Meats has secured South Korean approval for the supply, marketing, and distribution of bone in and boneless beef cuts and offal into South Korea from its sites in Grannagh in Co Waterford and Charleville in Co Cork.

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This new contract will commence later in the month and follows a successful visit by representatives of the South Korean company to Ireland in January of this year. The visit was the culmination of significant efforts by Dawn Meats to build relationships with South Korean potential clients, which began in 2018. It also follows an audit of Irish beef plants by South Korean authorities last month.

The processor is already a supplier of Irish beef into other markets in the region including the Philippines and Japan.

Niall Browne CEO of Dawn Meats said: “We welcome this new market access to South Korea and we are delighted that two of our sites have received South Korean approval. It is a testament to the high-quality beef supplied by our family farm suppliers, and it is a significant step in developing new market opportunities for our products.”

The company which boasts 11 sites in Ireland and 13 in the UK trading as Dunbia, processes a combined total of approximately 1m cattle and 3.5m sheep per year and exports to more than 50 countries.