None of Ireland’s sheepmeat factories have applied for access to export to the US market, despite a health certificate for full market access being signed between Ireland and the US in April 2022, which paved the way for Irish sheepmeat access to the market.

That agreement followed many years of negotiation at political, diplomatic, administrative and technical levels, with US Department of Agriculture (USDA) recognition in 2019 of the equivalence of Ireland’s sheepmeat inspection system, with US domestic standards being a key development, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue said this year.

The agreement allows interested sheepmeat plants to a site-specific, time-bound work programme demonstrating how they will achieve compliance with US requirements to the Irish Department of Agriculture.

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Approval process

“Once a sheepmeat plant successfully completes the USDA approval process, my Department will notify the Food Safety Inspection Service of the USDA that the plant can be registered to export sheepmeat to the US.

“At present, no sheepmeat plants have submitted a documented work programme. My Department is actively engaging with interested plants in assessing how they can comply with the requirements for this trade,” the Minister said in response to a parliamentary question from Mayo TD Michael Ring.

He added that as no plants have made a formal application for US approval, no trade has taken place to date.

“While the role of my Department is to open up international markets in consultation with stakeholders, it is up to the industry, with the support of my Department and Bord Bia’s marketing expertise, to capitalise on the resulting opportunities for trade,” he said.

Ban

In December 2021, the Department of Agriculture confirmed the lifting by the USDA of a ban on EU sheepmeat.

Up until that time, sheepmeat exports from the EU to the US had been banned due to the presence of scrapie in certain EU member states.