Brittany Ferries’ decision to halt the carrying of live animals from next month has been met with “considerable surprise and disappointment” by cattle and calf exporters.

Shippers have warned that curtailed capacity combined with journey time constraints pose major hurdles to continued levels of export activity.

Brittany Ferries’ move leaves Irish Ferries as the sole roll-on roll-off carrier of Irish livestock to the continent and its stop to animal transport comes less than one year after the company had helped backfill the capacity loss brought by Stena Line’s exit from the Rosslare-Cherbourg route.

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The Irish Livestock Exporters’ Association (ILEA) hit out at the apparent U-turn from Brittany Ferries as the company had provided assurances just one month ago to the industry that it “does not need to be concerned about the future of Brittany Ferries and its presence on the Rosslare-Cherbourg route”.

“Against that explicit representation, today’s announcement that livestock shipping services are to be withdrawn comes as a complete shock and has plainly blindsided the sector,” the ILEA’s trade representative Lorcan Ó Dochartaigh told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“The sector is entitled to ask how such a sudden reversal is to be reconciled with the assurances previously given. If circumstances have changed, then those reasons should be set out openly, promptly, and in full.”

The ILEA added that the livestock export trade is “too important to Irish agriculture and too dependent on dependable service provision to be treated in this fashion”.

Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher has called on Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon “to intervene if the market fails to respond appropriately” as the live export uncertainty leaves “too many livelihoods are at stake”.

IFA president Francie Gorman has stated that Minister Heydon and his EU counterparts must ensure that Irish farmers’ access to the single market cannot be hampered by the decisions of one company.