THE Department of Agriculture is investigating reports that Saudi Arabia has banned Irish beef.
A Department spokesman said that because it was a religious holiday in Saudi it was not possible to confirm the reports.
Saudi Arabia imported £47, million worth of live and processed beef in 1995, but the live trade has fallen dramatically since welfare problems with shipping animals through the Suez Canal were highlighted.
Industry sources said a refusal by Saudi to take Irish or European beef would represent a major setback to exporters here because of the influential position of that country in the Arab world.
Irish animals are currently being allowed into Egypt, and the Irish authorities are working to reopen the Libyan market which was worth £60 million in live exports last year.
It is expected that Irish beef and live cattle exporters will be much more active in the Middle Eastern markets this month, now that EU export refunds have been increased.
The industry has been claiming it cannot compete against Australian and New Zealand exporters since export refunds were progressively cut from September last year.
Yesterday, the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates held discussions with the Horgan Livestock Exporters group, one of this country's largest exporters of live cattle to the Middle East.
The Minister has arranged to meet representatives of the Irish Live Exporters Association next week. They represent the majority of live exporters in the country.
In further fallout from the BSE crisis, the Irish Farmers' Association accused meat factories of colluding to keep down cattle prices and accused the live shippers of not passing on the increased export refund benefits to producers.
Mr Raymond O'Malley, of the IFA's National Livestock Committee, said both live shippers and processors had held the price of cattle at 92 pence per lb despite intervention and the increase in export refunds.
Before the BSE crisis, he said, factories were paying £1 per lb; and operating profitably in third country markets. Since then they had cut cattle prices by 8p per lb.
"Even taking into account the severe difficulties on EU markets, factories should be paying an average price of close to £1 per lb for cattle," he said.
Bord Bia said yesterday the recovery of EU beef markets was continuing, but very slowly.
It also said it had replaced its helpline for Irish consumers with a recorded message system which allows its staff to make contact with those who call.