SIR Patrick Mayhew has not ruled out granting special status to Northern Ireland beef at some stage in the future, Suzanne Breen reports from Belfast.
At a meeting with the Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) at Stormont Castle in Belfast yesterday, he accepted that special conditions did apply to their produce.
The UFU president, Mr John Rankin, said his organisation supported a policy of selective slaughter. "Immediate action is needed to restore consumer confidence in beef", he said. "Whatever the consumer needs to be assured, we have to do".
