Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue is to meet his Northern Ireland counterpart Edwin Poots by video conference on Thursday and is likely to discuss the ongoing opposition in NI to the PGI application for Irish grass-fed beef being submitted without the North being included.

Minister McConalogue published the final version of the PGI last Thursday, with an opportunity to appeal the decision until 8 December for people resident in the jurisdiction with a legitimate interest. He again committed to supporting extension to include the geographical area of NI when it has a grass-fed standard in place.

Work has just begun on the standard in NI, but farmers there want to be included from the start because under the legislation, extension of the geographical area is a major change and requires almost a new application process.

The Ulster Farmers Union told the Irish Farmer Journal “we will be opposing [the application] if that’s what it comes to, however we would take all the necessary steps to avoid where possible”.

Provision is made in the EU legislation on PGIs for opposition to be lodged by other EU member states or third countries. Most NI-reared beef is marketed in Britain under the Red Tractor brand but cattle and carcase beef sourced from the Republic tend to be marketed as Irish, especially when sold in EU and global markets.

The final application for the PGI does not include young bull beef but Minister McConalogue said the European Commission will be advised of “strong views expressed during the national opposition procedure, that grass-fed young bulls should be included, when further data on this cohort is available to support this”.

The minister added that if the PGI application is successful he would establish a PGI monitoring group that would report to the beef taskforce and have a majority of farmers.