Beef off the menu as China bans premium product

At a business dinner in Beijing’s Kerry Hotel on Tuesday evening, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin celebrated the success of Irish and Chinese companies working together on everything from clean energy to life sciences. But as about 100 guests tucked into grilled fish, Martin was eager to remind them that, although Ireland’s was a high technology economy, we were also proud of our agricultural heritage.

“Through the application of our research and home-grown technological advancements and the world’s only national level food and drink sustainability programme, Origin Green, we can stand over the quality of our animal husbandry, our farm produce and drive for sustainability,” he said.

“Simply put, our food is second to none and I was particularly pleased to note the resumption of beef exports to China earlier this year.”

A few hours later, the Department of Agriculture in Dublin announced that it was suspending exports of beef to China after a routine check found an atypical case of BSE in a cow that was more than 10 years old. The last time this happened, beef exports to China were halted for three years but the Government is hoping for a much shorter ban this month.

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Last week, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue met senior South Korean politicians in the hope of expediting a decision to allow Irish beef into that market. The decision must go through a parliamentary process and there must be a risk that the suspension of exports to China will make it more difficult.

McConalogue was in Seoul along with Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney and Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris on a trade mission led by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. The mission was aimed at opening doors to a rich, highly developed market of 50 million people which remains largely unexploited by Irish business.

The vast Chinese market has become a more complicated place to do business since the coronavirus pandemic and amid mixed signals from Beijing about how welcome foreign companies are. Martin was on a mission of reassurance, telling his hosts that European plans to de-risk the economy were not solely directed towards China and that Ireland remained committed to free trade and globalisation.