Hi °C | Lo °C ANYBODY who believes that the horse-meat scandal will change the way meat is produced or consumed should take a look at the markets which suggest it is business as usual.
Greencore's shares have made up almost all of last week's declines and are now back to where they were at the beginning of the year.
The Irish company is not alone; last week, at the height of the crisis, shares in Britain's food retail sector rose 1.2pc. So far this year the sector is up 6.2pc.
On Monday, as Greencore's shares enjoyed their best one-day performance in more than a year, analysts were falling over themselves to praise the company with Numis and Panmure even raising the shares to "buy" or "add" from "hold" as they praised Greencore for quickly addressing the problem.
With markets reacting like this, it is quite clear that the big food companies are guiding analysts that they don't expect to be raising prices anytime soon despite all the revelations about their failure to play straight with customers.
While the markets are often wrong, it will be interesting to pop into the butcher's sometime after St Patrick's Day and see if they are still coining it.
For better, or for worse, the smart money says we will all be munching horse, donkey and whatever you are having yourself in the years ahead.
Irish Independent
