Food and drink exports slip 5% as BSE bites

IRISH food and drink exports have dropped by 5 per cent overall in the first six months of this year, according to figures released in Paris yesterday by Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board.

However, fish exports have increased and Bord Iascaigh Mhara, the Irish Sea Fisheries Board, expects record exports this year to France, Ireland's biggest seafood buyer. Already, total sales to prance for the first four months of this year are £17.974 million, an increase of £4.14 million on the same period last year.

France is Ireland's largest continental market for food and drink, with annual export sales of more than £450 million.

Figures released yesterday at SIAL, the second largest food and drinks exhibition in the world, showed that declines in the beef and dairy sectors more than offset growth in all other categories.

A survey carried out for Bord Bia by the ESRI showed that exports of consumer foods grew by over 20 per cent to just under £500 million.

Beef exports dropped by 20 per cent across European markets because of the impact of the BSE crisis from late March, but exports of lamb and pig meat products were strong, according to the chairman of Bord Bia, Mr Philip Lynch.

Full year projections showed some promise, he said. The board's chief executive, Mr Michael Duffy, said that consumption had returned to 85 per cent of normal. With the implementation of a quality assurance programme and barring other crises, he believed beef consumption could soon be back to normal.

In France we are not selling in the same places," Mr Duffy said. Sales had increased in the catering sector.

In the dairy sector, exports are estimated to have fallen by 15 per cent, which the board said reflected a weakening in world commodity prices and increased use of intervention by industry.

In the fish food market, France accounted for 22 per cent of total export sales, followed by Spain (17 per cent) Britain (10 per cent) Germany (9 per cent) and Japan (8 per cent). Last year, fish and shellfish sales in France totalled £45.826 million.

Mr Gerry O'Sullivan, manager of BIM's European office in Paris, was confident that these levels would be surpassed in 1996.