Cattle shippers fear that the ball could get rolling before Christmas on a proposed tightening of EU animal transport rules they say would end the live export trade if signed into law.

An update of EU animal transport rules has been on the agenda since 2023 but has been put on ice in the interim.

The Irish Livestock Exporters Association’s (ILEA) Lorcan Ó Dochartaigh has said that indications from Brussels this week suggest that a push to finalise the new regulations could come within the next three-to-six months.

Figures from Ó Dochartaigh likened the impact of the 2023 European Commission proposals to a lorry that can currently take 70 weanling bulls of around 300kg having its capacity cut to 45-head, significantly increasing the per animal transport costs of these weanlings beyond the level with which they can compete with weanlings sourced from markets closer to continental buyers.

“We have concern with the entire document. It covers walk-on vessels, short journeys on the island of Ireland and exports to third countries,” the ILEA representative told the Irish Farmers Journal this week.

“It costs €6,000 just to take a truck from Rosslare to Cherbourg. Whether this cost is spread over 70 weanlings or the 45 that is proposed is the difference in the couple of hundred euros per head that it takes to stay competitive.”