Recovery of beef trade `a long way off'

THE Minister for Agriculture backed the EU Commission view that the effects of the BSE crisis would persist until at least the end of the year.

"Unfortunately, I have to share that view because all of the indications are that it will take a long time for the beef market to recover from the crisis," Mr Yates said.

Right across Europe, he added, particularly in the major beef consuming countries, consumer confidence had suffered and it would take time for it to be restored. He had called on the Commission to implement an EU beef promotion campaign to counter the BSE scare and promote the product.

Opening a series of statements on the BSE crisis, Mr Yates said 127 cases had been confirmed in the Republic since 1989. Based on a cattle population of seven million, this represented an annual incidence of 0.0002 per cent.

In 12 cases, the animals were imported and investigation into many of the remainder had shown links to the use of imported feed. All cases had occurred in animals of four years and over, and tile age profile of cases continued to increase.

The Border operation enforcing the UK export prohibition was costing about £350,000 a week, Mr Yates said. It involved the Garda, backed up by the customs service and the Department, with a 24 hour police presence at each Border crossing supported by mobile, land foot and helicopter patrols.

Beef consumption in the EU before the BSE crisis was about 7.5 million tonnes, which meant that each 1 per cent fall in consumption corresponded to 75,000 tonnes. The expected fall in beef production in Britain would only accommodate a 4 per cent drop in consumption across the EU.

"Unfortunately, such is the extent to which consumer confidence has been undermined that the long term decline in consumption is likely to be far greater than 4 per cent," said Mr Yates.

He believed the proposed £8 million EU compensation package for Ireland, to assist producers, needed to be increased. He would suggest this at next week's Council meeting. The Minister aimed to ensure the overall package was adequate and that support targeted those producers who had suffered most.

Mr Yates was satisfied that the control measures in place in the Republic provided consumers and overseas customers with all possible guarantees relating to the safety of Irish beef.

When a case of BSE was confirmed, the herd from which the animal originated was depopulated at full market value and the carcasses rendered into meat and bone meal so that there was no possibility that the human food or animal feed chain could be affected. The infected carcass was also destroyed.

The Fianna Fail spokesman on agriculture, Mr Brian Cowen, said the BSE crisis had shown that we could not gamble with the beef industry any longer. "Everything we do in this industry must reinforce the confidence of the consumer in the quality and nutritional value of Irish food produced to the highest environmental standards."

The complacency of the Government was unprecedented. They had not got agreement at European level about how to resolve the British crisis, let alone get Irish issues on the agenda.

The food industry was entering an era where production and processing must be driven by the demands of the marketplace. Consideration must be given immediately to setting up a food quality authority to ensure that consumer concerns were dealt with. Such an agency would control standards of inspection and codes of practice, drugs and chemicals used in animals and crop production, implement animal health, disease eradication and handle import export functions.

There should be a national database for cattle, similar to that in Northern Ireland, so that the movement of any animal on the island could be traced.

Mr Bobby Molloy (PD, Galway West) said the marketing challenge facing agriculture was highlighted by the BSE crisis. The disappearance of intervention gave the impression that the beef industry was market driven. Were it not for the EU export subsidies to third countries, however, these markets would also disappear. They were being used to flush out surplus stocks of beef at low prices, but he doubted if European taxpayers would subsidise them when the East European countries joined the Union.

Mr Willie Penrose Lab, Westmeath said Irish farmers were the innocent parties in this crisis. It had its origins in mismanagement in Britain and instead of ameliorating the crisis Britain was now making it worse by saying that it would take six years before the last of the BSE infected animals were removed from their herds. There was an urgent need for a campaign to regain consumer confidence.

Mr Alan Dukes (FG, Kildare) said the crisis had been blown up "on the very slimmest of scientific evidence and on the most tenuous alleged links between BSE and CJD. Because it concerns food and health the speculation has given rise to a feeding frenzy in the media and to a spate of incredibly unscientific and irresponsible pronouncements by professional people who should know better".

Most of our daily activities carried a higher risk of mortality than the consumption of beef.

Referring to the Minister's efforts to get a compensation system in place, Mr Dukes said he should seek EU agreement on direct compensation for cattle slaughtered since the beginning of the year, with a higher rate for cattle slaughtered since March 20th when the crisis really blew up.

The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said the Minister's partitionist attitude to farmers in Northern Ireland was distasteful. One way of alleviating the problem in Britain would be to break the UK down into regions so that the export ban would be lifted from those regions which were BSE free, such as Northern Ireland and Scotland. The EU had been asking the British authorities to do that.