Consumers are sticking with British beef, despite startling price rises that have occurred over the last year.

And, with the product now comparatively cheap on international markets thanks to the fall in the value of sterling, industry leaders are forecasting that any meat unsold on the domestic market will soon find a home elsewhere.

Here, beef prices have risen by 15 per cent in the last 12 months, bringing long overdue relief for producers who had struggled to cope with appallingly low market returns.

But for mince, sirloin and other popular cuts, the increases have been even higher. Yet the National Beef Association (NBA) says there is no sign of consumers turning their backs on the home-produced product.

NBA director Kim Haywood said: "This is a win-win situation. If domestic demand ever falters, the slack in the market will be taken up by overseas customers who will be happy to buy British beef for the same price in euros that they paid last autumn, even though it will earn the producers over 20 per cent more in sterling terms." The association says financial traders are not expecting sterling/euro exchange rates to improve until the economic storm has begun to blow itself out.

Ms Haywood said: "The current consensus is that this will take at least two years, so beef farmers across the UK should be able to feel confident about their market income until the beginning of 2011 at least.

"It is also significant that exporters in the Republic of Ireland who sell beef into the UK are being hit so hard by the rise in the value of the euro against sterling that they have called on their government to set up a sterling stabilisation fund, with an exchange rate fixed at 80 euros to the pound instead of about 94p, so that some of their sales can be protected.

"This underlines just how much the UK's beef sector can expect to benefit from the rise in the value of the euro.

"At the moment, UK cattle prices are mainly underpinned by strong retail demand against weaker overall supplies and a strong euro that inhibits imports, so they should rise further."