Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has revealed that the number of meat imports from Poland to Ireland have dropped since last year.

In response to a parliamentary question from Willie Penrose TD, Minister Creed said CSO figures showed that “from January to September 2019, we imported 777t of fresh/chilled and frozen beef to the value of €3m from Poland”.

This was a decrease compared to the previous year, when 1,251t of fresh/chilled and frozen beef to the value of €4.6m were imported from Poland.

This tonnage of meat is relatively small. In comparison, Ireland produces an estimated 520,000t of beef every year with roughly 470,000t destined for export. Around half of our beef exports are destined for the UK market.

Concerns

Many farmers expressed concerns via social media and during the recent tractor protest that Polish meat was being imported and labelled as Irish.

Minister Creed has previously stated that imported meat cannot carry the Bord Bia logo.

“Meat imported from mainland Europe which is processed and packaged in the Republic of Ireland cannot carry the Origin Ireland Bord Bia Quality logo,” the minister said.

Bord Bia has also written to its quality assured farms in the last week with a fact sheet in an attempt to quell farmer fears that cheap, imported meat is being labelled as Irish.

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