There was a good turnout of live exporters at last week’s briefing in Tullamore, with familiar names present including one of the Hallisseys from Co Kerry, Hunters and Murphys from Cork, Maxwells from Roscommon and Paul Clarke from Co Sligo. They got briefings from Bord Bia and the Department of Agriculture.

Exporters were pleased to hear that two well-regarded officials have joined the Department’s live exports division: John Melville and Deirdre Burke. Many exporters would be familiar with Melville in particular as the vet worked in the live exports division before and is well experienced in international trade matters.

However, exporters were frustrated to hear June Fanning and Kathleen O’Connor have moved on from live exports. Veterinary surgeon Fanning has been proactive in maintaining an open communication channel with exporters. “She was practical in her dealings with exporters, trying to make the trade possible while meeting health, movement and welfare standards,” one exporter said.

“Michael Creed needs to get serious in 2017 and put more staff into the live export unit – they’re trying to deal with live exports of everything from cattle to horses and dogs.”

A key issue that exporters want Minister Creed to tackle is quarantine requirements on export certs to markets such as Egypt and Algeria. A 30-day quarantine puts a cost on exporters of up to €200 per head when feed and vaccines are totalled up. For example, Algeria requires a 10-day quarantine on French cattle but 30 days for Ireland.

Exporters – and the IFA – want the Minister to visit Egypt. A new health cert is to be negotiated for young feeder cattle to Egypt and exporters hope it won’t have a punitive quarantine.

At the briefing, Department speakers went through new EU rules on 30 days residency before live export. The rule has been sensibly implemented by the Department. Cattle can go from a 30-day residency directly to an assembly centre. They can go through a dealer or a mart to an assembly centre, or through a mart and dealer to an assembly centre. The same movements are permitted for calves under 30 days once they are leaving their farm of origin.