Full coverage: Agribusiness

As the food technology group recovers from Covid-19, its chief executive Edmond Scanlon answered a series of questions on the way it picks, conducts and reports acquisitions. The future of its dairy and consumer foods businesses is far less clear.

The historic Kerry Co-op is in advanced talks with the wider food group to regain control of its domestic agribusiness. The deal is a high-stakes bet for the farmers, and part of a final focus on high-tech ingredients for Kerry Group.

From new market entrants to the multiple challenges of online sales and higher expectations in the year of Covid-19, the Christmas tree market is not exempt from change… Or is it?

Larry Goodman’s decision to appoint a prominent London dealmaker to his family holdings one year ago, and the departure of his son Mark from ABP's senior executive team last month, book-end a period of dramatic change. What is next for the beef processing giant?

McDonald's is the latest food business to announce a plant-based alternative for next year. We don’t know yet if shifts in consumer demand away from meat and dairy are a temporary fad or deep-seated trends. Either way, a public stake in this emerging industry would help manage what the future holds for Irish farmers.

Thousands of farmers in the co-op at the origin of Kerry Group were targeted by the tax authority over the status of so-called patronage shares. A new landmark case has revealed how the probe came unstuck.

Dairy food manufacturer Glenisk is expanding to double production. From a site with no electricity, Vincent Cleary has grown the family business to the forefront of Ireland’s organic industry – despite the disdain he says he has faced from official Ireland.

The Belfast-based livestock nutrition company is investing massively in its new global research and development centre in Co Meath, where it hopes to produce carbon-neutral beef and dairy by 2025. But the lenders behind a €118m refinancing package are keeping a close watch as its existing business faces the challenges of Brexit and Covid-19. To provide guarantees, Owen Brennan’s group has been reorganising.

Just one year ago, meat factories now at the centre of Covid-19 outbreaks were facing another storm, with pickets at their gates. Complaints gave rise to an examination of competition in the sector, but a trawl of the 316 files in the case shows that while the CCPC found time to threaten protesting farmers with legal action, the watchdog stopped short of contacting beef barons.

Live streams, smartphone bids and USB gavels became features of livestock sales as soon as the Covid-19 lockdown closed marts to the public. Technology providers are vying for this business, which appears to be here to stay.