Twenty20 Beef Club takes coveted European Award for Cooperative Innovation!

The Twenty20 Beef Club was recently announced as the winner of a European Award for Cooperative Innovation organised by Cogeca in the “Economic Value Creation” category.

What is the Twenty20 Beef Club?

The Twenty20 Beef Club is a fully integrated calf to beef programme between Glanbia Ireland and Kepak Group. It has been created to sustainably produce and market Irish heifer and steer beef. A fully traceable input supply chain underpins the programme, supporting industry leading marketing claims and provenance based differentiation.

The overriding objective of the programme is to improve the economic, environmental and social sustainability of calf to beef production in the Republic of Ireland for dairy and beef farmers.

The programme was first piloted in 2019 and in addition to the economic benefits brought to its members, the model has reduced the carbon footprint of the beef produced and improved animal health and welfare by focusing on prevention rather than cure, with vaccines and welfare practices replacing antibiotics.

Award Win!

An international judging panel, who assessed over 100 entries from across Europe, singled out the Twenty20 Beef Club’s proven credentials and said it represents “an outstanding innovation that creates valuable impact in the value chain”.

They continued to praise the Twenty20 Beef Club, adding: “Innovation is about value creation and the way your organisation does it clearly underlines how the cooperative model is a key tool to respond to the emerging challenges, to shift to more sustainable food systems and to bring further environmental, economic and social benefits.”