Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Chinese market is an important one for us to develop and build on. Our meat companies are doing really strong work in it to build up customers. China, with its 1.4 billion people and its growth in GDP and economic well-being, has a lot of potential for the future. Currently, however, the Chinese market represents a small proportion of beef exports overall. To date this year, the value of our beef exports to China is €16 million. The total value of our beef exports this year will be €2.5 billion, so the value of the beef we export to China represents just under 0.5% of what we export overall. There is very good demand for our beef in many other markets, so I do not have any worries about an impact on our current beef price. There are 69 other markets, which make up 99.5% of our total volume. That is important. The step I have taken as Minister, which is unprecedented in the State, has seen the introduction this year of a new food regulator office specifically to bring more transparency to the food supply chain. Therefore, we now have a statutory office shining a light on the relationship between the farmer, primary producer, processor and retailer to ensure fair play for farm families. We all have to work together to maximise the value of our beef and re-enter and build the Chinese market so it can deliver for family farms in the future.

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