The task facing the Irish beef processing industry because of the BSE fallout in mainland Europe is staggering not only in terms of volume but also in cost to the Irish taxpayer - a possible £300 million in the short term.
The Irish Meat Association, which represents beef processors, expects to be able to kill and render 25,000 cattle a week under the Purchase for Destruction Scheme sanctioned by the EU.
These animals will average 500kg in weight, and from each lot of 25,000 animals 12,500 tonnes of meat for destruction will be generated. This will have to be rendered down to 2,600 tonnes of meat-and-bone meal.
A further 1,250 tonnes of skins will have to be dealt with and the specified risk materials (believed to harbour the dreaded BSE prion) will generate 875 tonnes of waste.
Using the current rates being paid to renderers and for storage and other costs involved in the process, it is estimated that the this process alone will cost £1.5 million per week.
This cost does not include the compensatory payments made to the farmers at more than 90p per lb for bullocks. Just under 70 per cent of this will be met from EU coffers. On a 500kg animal, the farmer is likely to receive almost £300 from the State and the remaining £700 from the EU.
The beef industry has claimed it would cost more than £400 per animal to kill, process, render and store the 750,000 animals in the State which qualify for this scheme - having compensated the farmer.
Using the industry figures this could mean the Irish taxpayer would face a bill of at least £300 million to dispose of the animals and render them into meat-and-bone meal. Long-term storage costs, which are likely to be considerable, are another matter.
This figure does not take into account the loss of earnings to meat plants from their overseas markets which have more or less shut down since late November.
The export value to the State of Irish beef and Irish beef products was just over £1.2 billion when the latest BSE crisis began with the discovery of beef from a BSE-infected herd had been sold into a supermarket chain in France. This sparked an EU investigation of BSE levels in continental countries and Germany reported its first cases along with Spain.