The chair of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) livestock committee, Brendan Golden, has called for political pressure to be maintained to swiftly resolve the halting of beef exports to China.
Mr Golden told RTE radio’s Morning Ireland that the situation was very disappointing. “Everything seems to be going against us at the moment because we've been dealing with very high costs and everything for over the last year or so.
“To hear this news was really disappointing yesterday. But I hope it can be resolved quickly, and I hope that the Chinese respond quicker this time round. We had this same thing happen back in 2020, and it was only last January that there was a resumption of the market there.
“The key point here is back in 2019, the market was building, and we were getting more sustainable. So it was climbing. And again, it was like starting from scratch again this spring. But it is the timing of that at the moment is probably good for us. And as we're heading into the valuable Christmas market and start sales of numbers of cattle both in the UK and our EU markets are tight and numbers are tightening here and we would expect that the market needs to move on and that it has capacity to move on. It's not as bad a situation as it could be very often.”
Surveillance systems
The fact that the case of BSE had been caught showed that the surveillance systems monitoring cattle were effective. The case that had been detected was a strain of BSE that did not have any risk to humans or public health, whatsoever, he said.
When asked if farmers would be seeking compensation, Mr Golden said that the amount in relation to these exports would be very small. "The most important thing was they are the volumes are small and stay eating for me is the amount of compensation that was relate to these exports are small. The most important thing for me is that market here returns the value of the UK and the European market to us in the short term. I think that part of the compensation at the moment.”
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has pointed out that the animal at the centre of the BSE test had not been destined for the Chinese market.
Atypical BSE was something that happened sporadically in animals, and it did not present a food safety issue, he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
“We have the highest of testing standards anywhere in the world, here in Ireland, and we have the lowest risk rating possible from the World Organisation for Animal Health as well. So this is something that happens sporadically. We export to 70 countries around the world and it only impacts on one of those markets we export to specifically because of the export protocol we have in place with the Chinese market.”
A part of the export protocol with China was presenting epidemiological reports, but it was important to point out this animal wasn't destined for the Chinese market, he said. “It was identified in standard testing procedures, but under a protocol with the Chinese government, we have to notify of any such cases. So that's not something we expect to have an impact in relation to our wider export levels. China is currently a small part of our overall beef exports, but an important one because we see real potential in that market in the years ahead. So we will work now with the Chinese government to seek to have it reopened as promptly as possible.”
Food safety
Food safety was something that was taken very seriously in Ireland, he added. “We're an exporting country with 90 percent of our food being exported abroad. So that safety aspect is very, very key.
“As an exporting country will work to try and satisfy the needs in every way possible of all the countries that we actually export with.”
Mr McConalogue said he hoped that matter could be dealt with in a matter of months and that the export market to China could reopen within a matter of months, while it had taken years when a similar situation had occurred in 2020.
“I would be hoping on the basis that we've gone through this process very recently, that it won't take the same amount of time again. But this is obviously something that is a matter for the Chinese government. We will, as we did last time, work to make sure that we make ourselves available.”
