Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Last year we got Japan, Lebanon and the Gulf states open. We got live exports to North Africa, which is a difficult market to manage. Even today, I spent half my meeting with the Chinese ambassador talking about beef access into China. In addition, we are pushing to get access into both the United States and Canada this year. We are expanding the spread of beef markets that we can access and we have a mature and street-wise group of companies that can take advantage when those markets open.

I agree with Deputy McNamara. We need to have an alternative outlet for farmers, the primary producers, if they feel they are not getting a fair price from the factories here in Ireland, and that is where live cattle exports come in. However, my preference would be that we would minimise live cattle exports. It needs to be there as an option, but what we want is to be getting a good price here in Ireland and employing people in processing and adding value to meat here before it is exported. That is where the maximum dividend is. As many farmers would say, however, it is important to have a live cattle export trade to keep factories honest.

There is a specific issue around beef prices in the United Kingdom versus Ireland. That is because the UK has become a separate market to the rest of the European Union in terms of prices. Last year we were at 106% of EU beef prices, which is unusual. Up until a couple of years ago, we would have been probably below 95%. Irish beef is selling at a premium across the European Union, above the price of most other European beef. That is not the case in the UK because consumers there are choosing UK beef and are willing to pay more for it. We have a particular issue with that in terms of labelling, etc. This problem is not simply solved by a live cattle export trade to the UK because factories in the UK do not want to kill Irish animals. They want to kill British animals and label them as British beef. They want to import Irish beef and label that as Irish beef. With Irish-reared and British-slaughtered beef there is a confusing message on the label which is not what retailers want. There is an issue here that we are trying to address as best we can. There is also an issue with new restrictions that are being introduced in terms of slaughtering in Northern Ireland of animals that have been reared south of the Border, which is another issue.

On the specifics of the bull beef issue which I accept is a big issue for farmers, 20% of our specialist beef is bull beef and we need to find an outlet for that. I will do what I can to work with the factories to facilitate a more acceptable solution than is currently available for farmers but I cannot perform miracles. There is ultimately a marketplace that decides here what it wants and what it is willing to pay for.

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