THE Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, has told beef farmers they need not be unduly concerned over reports that they could lose the lucrative Russian market to Argentinian competition.
Mr Yates said his officials and An Bord Bia were aware that the Argentinian beef trade was seeking to secure a greater portion of the Russian trade, as reported in Saturday's Irish Times.
However, he said, this was a commercial matter and Irish commercial and other contacts were well established in the Russian market, which had taken nearly, 300,000 tonnes of Irish beef since 1994.
Industry sources said at the weekend that the Argentinian authorities had made a major effort, to increase the country's share of the Russian market, which will take 630,000 tonnes of its beef this year.
But, while the Argentinians already supply some meat to Russia, fears over foot and mouth disease, the use of the growth promoter "angel dust" (clenbuterol) and less competitive pricing than European competitors have hindered its marketing effort.
At a recent court case in Dublin, Department of Agriculture officials said clenbuterol they had seized at a house in Tallaght in March 1992 came from Argentina where it was in widespread use.
Meanwhile, Mr Yates will be in Brussels later today at an Agriculture Ministers meeting attempting to get a better deal for beef farmers from EU intervention sales.
Last Friday Irish meat plants were awarded contracts to place 2,568 tonnes of beef - 7,500 bullocks - into intervention over the next fortnight, 80 per cent of the amount tendered for at an average price of 87.6p per lb.
Mr Yates wants the Commission to increase both the price the Union will pay for intervention beef and also increase the upper weight limit so that larger animals will be accepted.
The ministers will also be discussing the Dutch proposal to identify beef by its country of origin to which the Irish beef trade is opposed on the grounds that it renationalises an EU product.
While the proposal has some merit for Irish exporters, in the main there is opposition because since the BSE crisis, most Europeans want to buy local product and there is still consumer confusion over Irish beef.
At the time it has been learned that there are no prosecutions planned over the inclusion of bonemeal in animal rations which have been found in 76 samples taken by the Department last year. Most of the samples were found to have minute bone fragments in them, mainly from poultry carcasses.
Mr Yates has rejected an allegation of a cover up by the Fianna Fail Agriculture spokesman, Mr Joe Walsh, who accused him of concealing the information from the public.
A Department spokesman said that it had not issued information on the bone found in samples because it had not been asked for the information by anyone.
He denied that new regulations being brought in to cover meat and bonemeal were being rushed through in advance of a visit by European veterinary experts who arrive here on February 24th for a week long visit.