NI : Beef trade on the up

By James Campbell

Beef prices have bottomed out for this autumn and a rise is on the cards.

The signs are that numbers of cattle being offered for slaughter in Northern Ireland, the Irish Republic and Britain are down on normal levels during the current week and last week. Along with news of an outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease in Brazil there is suddenly a feeling that the worst of this autumn's beef trade is behind us.

As the Farmers Journal went to press, the decision of the EU Commission on the acceptance, or otherwise, of Brazilian beef imports was still awaited. It seems likely that beef already on board ships bound for Europe will be allowed into the EU market and beef from parts of Brazil, not affected by the FMD outbreak, also will be admitted. So the outbreak of FMD in Brazil may not have an immediate effect on the volume of beef imported during the next few weeks. But coming at a time when beef from cattle over 30 months of age is due to be offered on the UK market (from 7 November), any difficulty for Brazilian exports could be very timely for UK producers. The Irish Farmers Association has been quick to apply political pressure for the introduction of restrictions on Brazilian imports.

An upturn could not come soon enough and it doesn't mean that suddenly beef farmers are into profit making or anything close to profit. Reflecting the crisis in beef production, Ballymena farmer Kevin McAuley is staging a protest rally at Stormont gates on Monday next.

Meanwhile, a decision by UK government departments to issue a consultation on the resumption of beef exports this week has come as another timely boost to morale within the local beef sector. The move has been welcomed by the Ulster Farmers' Union.

Beginning the consultation now is seen as a pragmatic approach which reflects the urgency of removing beef export restrictions as soon as possible after the Over Thirty Month rule changes.

Farmers' unions throughout the UK were aghast last month when they learned that the normal process of government consultation could delay the removal of the UK beef export restrictions until March 2006. That would have been the case if a consultation lasting for the standard 12 weeks had not started until after the EU Commission had made its formal proposal on the matter. It is anticipated that the EU will formally propose in late 2005 or early 2006 that exports of beef and live cattle from the UK could begin under the same terms as exports from other EU member states and the Date Based Export Scheme could end. Now, the UK consultation process is to be concluded before the end of the year. UK legislation can then be put in place in early 2006, fitting in with the timetable the industry is working to for the return of UK beef to export markets.

The consultation deals with both live and carcase exports and the age at which beef can be sold on the bone.