Jim Glennon (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)
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Question 178: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food her views on the prospects for Irish beef exports in 2005. [26164/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Beef production is extremely valuable to the economy with a €1.4 billion export value representing almost 25% of total Irish agri-food exports. Most of our beef exports to date, this year, have been to the high value UK and EU markets. EU consumption is predicted to again outstrip production in 2005 with a resulting import gap of an estimated 280,000 tonnes for the year. This will provide opportunities for our beef exports in the high value continental EU markets.

Our aim is to consolidate out position in the EU market and in this regard, Bord Bia recently launched its Irish Beef in Europe campaign which is aimed at building sales of Irish beef in European supermarkets, and to establish the Irish Beef brand firmly in the minds of consumers. This is being rolled out progressively across eight EU countries over the next two months. In recent years, there has been a significant improvement in our market penetration in the high value EU marketplace. In 2001, we exported 72,000 tonnes to continental EU with only two retailers stocking Irish beef. By last year those exports had more than doubled to 174,000 tonnes and more than 30 retail groups, in that valuable market, are stocking Irish beef. The marketing effort will be continued in order to build further sustainable market share in Europe.

The ending of the over 30 months scheme in the UK has been announced and is expected to result in displacement of 70,000 tonnes on the UK market. We will have to intensify our marketing effort to retain outlets for our beef within the EU and in other third country markets. It is estimated that total beef exports in 2005 will be slightly reduced on the 2004 figure of 497,000 tonnes.