Meat Industry Ireland (MII) is the Ibec sector association which represents the primary beef, pork and lamb processing facilities located in the Republic of Ireland.

Discover / Irish meat sector

The meat sector in Ireland, from farm through to processing and export, is one of the most important indigenous industries in the national economy, supporting in excess of 120,000 individual farmers and generating total sales of > €4.5bn, with 2020 exports of approximately €3bn. Rurally located meat processing plants act as a key economic contributor by providing direct employment in several Irish towns with additional supplementary jobs generated in distribution, transport and services.

Over the past decades the Irish beef meat sector has grown from a frozen commodity business into the fifth largest net beef exporter globally. The sheepmeat sector, also export oriented supplying to over 30 market placing Ireland as the fourth largest net exporter in the world and second largest in the EU. Equivalently, Irish pigmeat exports have also grown exponentially with increasing presence in international export markets.

Within the Irish meat sector, the potential exists to further scale up activity and capacity to grow exports delivering new revenues and jobs through value added processing in a sustainable and attainable way.

Get in touch

Meat Industry Ireland, led by Cormac Healy, represents and supports a broad and diverse mix of members from Irish meat sector. The team keeps members informed on policy through in-house briefings, provides industry updates, research and regularly runs member networking forums and industry led training for the sector. 

For any queries, please telephone +353 1 605 1500.