WATERFORD live export company is to export 35,000 live cattle to Egypt between now and the end of the year, it was confirmed yesterday.
Mr Seamus Purcell, of Purcell Brothers in Waterford, yesterday confirmed a report on the shipments in The Irish Farmers Journal.
"We are loading one boat in Waterford this weekend and we have a contract for 35,000 animals with the Egyptian government Ministry of Trade and Supply," he said yesterday.
"I spent a lot of time working on this contract and I am very pleased about it," he added.
"The Egyptians are looking for quality Irish beef and we can supply it and the ministry is very well organised with a chain of over 200 shops and transport and storage areas," he said.
Mr Purcell said his company will be buying animals of around 550kg and 35 per cent of these would be Friesian breeds.
"I am also confident that we can reopen the Libyan market and I am going there in the second week of, September to see what I can do.
The announcement by Mr Purcell is the first good news for the beef industry since the latest BSE scare broke in Britain on March 20th.
Since then cattle prices have tumbled and prime animals were making only 82p per lb, over 24p per lb less than this time last year.
The British statements on BSE also led to a closure of the lucrative live export markets in Egypt and Libya for nearly two months, but in recent months the Egyptians have been buying small numbers of Irish cattle.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates, went to Libya last month to try to have that live market reopened, and he hoped this could happen in October.
The end result of the problems has been a glut of animals ready for slaughter building up on farms.
The Department of Agriculture estimates there are 100,000 animals surplus to market requirements awaiting sale.
Last week the Irish Farmers' Association claimed the value of the national herd of seven million animals had dropped by £1 billion in recent weeks and asked farmers not to panic.
There had been fears that, as grass grew scarce, farmers would unload their animals on to the markets, further depressing prices.
The news that over one third of the 100,000 surplus animals had found a market in Egypt was welcomed yesterday by a spokesman for the Department: "It's the best news we have had in some time."
