The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, continued his tour of European countries yesterday to reassure buyers of Irish beef that there will be no more interruptions of supply.
Mr Walsh was accompanied in Paris by Mr Michael Duffy, the chief executive of the Irish Food Board, when he met wholesalers and retailers of Irish beef.
The French import 50,000 tonnes of Irish beef, worth an estimated £110 million annually, and are one of the most important markets for Ireland in continental Europe.
Mr Walsh also met the French Minister for Agriculture, Mr Glavany, to discuss the Irish sheep trade.
He was attempting to get French support for an increase in the EU ewe premium, which last year was worth £100 million to Ireland's 78,000 sheep farmers.
However, because the premium is calculated on an EUwide price, higher prices in the southern EU states have meant that there has been no increase in the ewe premium for the last year.
Mr Walsh's attempts to have the premium calculated on a different basis have received little support in the EU and yesterday he was trying, once again, to get French support.
A review of EU sheepmeat policy is to be conducted by the Commission. This is likely to happen during the French presidency, which begins in June.
Today the Minister will travel to the Netherlands to meet beef importers in the wake of the fortnight-long dispute which disrupted supplies.
He will be concentrating his efforts on the supermarket chain, Hoogvliet, which delisted Irish beef during the dispute between the farmers and the meat factories.
He is hoping to persuade the company to buy Irish beef again, and to assure it of continuity of supply.
Meanwhile, cattle prices remain firm at factories, with most of them paying the IFA-demanded price of 90p for O-grade cattle.