North producer facing collapse

The director of one of Northern Ireland's largest beef producers said yesterday his company was facing a total collapse a Mr Ian Doherty, of the Derry based Doherty's Meat Products, said "BSE is a British problem, not an Irish one. It is not fair to lump Irish firms selling high quality meat products in with British firms selling low quality burgers. We have been caught up in an understandable public panic, but we are facing a complete collapse in demand for our product," he said.