The EU parliament's agriculture committee will give its opinion on animal welfare in transport when it votes on a report on Wednesday afternoon. The report is not a legislative one but could be of concern to Irish farmers.

“This report contains a paragraph that could be of concern that says where we are exporting animals from the EU to third countries but cannot guarantee the standards in slaughterhouses then the exports should be prohibited,” vice president of the European Parliament and Irish MEP Mairead McGuinness told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“Immediately that will be of huge concern, particularly for beef farmers who are under pressure, where there is concern about competition in the beef market and the live export trade is the only source of competition.”

The report also recommends that animal journey times be reduced as far as possible and recommends a number of strategies to do so, including:

  • Funding from the European Commission for economically viable local slaughter facilities.
  • Replacing breeding animals by using semen and embryos.
  • Transporting carcases and meat rather than live animals.

    • The fitness of an animal for transport was also a major focus of the report.

    While the issue is not immediate for farmers, McGuinness says it is in the “one-to-watch category” as it is the start of a discussion at EU level around live export of animals.

    “The EU is not moving to ban live exports,” she said. “Ireland is invested heavily in good transport facilities. We are an island nation and the live trade is part and parcel of our livestock sector and vital to its survival.”

    Read more

    Align third-country standards or ban live exports says EU report