Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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17. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine why beef exports to the United States of America were worth only €11 million in 2015, when predictions were that sales there would amount to €50 to €100 million. [2277/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s role in relation to market access for beef is to ensure that Ireland’s control systems meet the veterinary and animal health requirements of the importing country. In that context Ireland was the first EU Member State to gain access to the US market in January 2015 , and remains the only Member state to have such access.

Six plants are approved to export, and as with any new market it takes time to build reputational brand and a customer base and the real time to assess its value is when these are bedded down.

More than 11 billion kilos of beef is consumed annually in the United States, making it the largest consumer of beef in the world and the opportunities for importers are significant, but contingent on the usual market dynamics, including those relating to price, currency, domestic demand and alternative sources of beef.

In volume terms, by the end of December the figures for exports of beef from Ireland to the US had risen to an estimated 1,800 tonnes which would have an approximate value of €11.5 million. This represents an exceptionally strong start to this trade considering that the first exports only went in March 2015 and some of the plants were only approved for export as recently as September. Also trade is confined to the market for intact cuts as we currently await approval to export beef intended for grinding. Another factor is that US beef prices have fallen back from the peaks recorded in the early part of 2015 which makes beef imports less competitive.

More importantly the relatively high prices available for beef in Europe in 2015 meant that US buyers may have been priced out of the market as Irish exporters chose to send product to more valuable markets in the UK and on the continent. While the volume of beef exported to the UK in 2015 was largely the same as the previous year, it rose in value to represent 54% of the exported beef from Ireland compared to 47% in 2014. This of course is helped by a strong sterling and weak euro.

My department will continue to engage with competent authorities in international markets. In 2015 the Canadian beef market opened to Ireland and other Member States and markets in Iran Oman and the Maldives opened to Irish beef exports. I also concluded an extension to our market access to the Philippines, where up to the end of quarter three there had been €11 million of beef exports from Ireland, making us the second largest exporter of beef into the Philippines. Furthermore we are currently in the process of trying to secure beef access to other third countries including China, Korea, Vietnam and Mexico. It is my intention to continue to focus on developing as many third country markets as possible in order to provide exporters as many commercial opportunities as possible in a competitive global marketplace.