Last week’s meeting of the Beef Market Taskforce may not have resolved many of the issues around the objections to Bord Bia’s proposed PGI application, but it appears there is progress in dealing with Northern Ireland’s involvement in the application. This follows engagement between ministers McConalogue in Dublin and Poots in Belfast.

It appears that there are no issues with Northern Ireland being part of an Irish grass fed PGI brand application other than the fact they don’t have a defined grass fed standard at present and it would take a full 18 month inspection cycle to put that in place. Bord Bia is keen to progress the application at a faster pace.

The Irish Farmers Journal also understands there will be no issue processing Irish grass-fed cattle or carcase beef in Northern Ireland

The Irish Farmers Journal understands that Department officials in Belfast and Dublin along with Bord Bia and the Livestock and Meat Commission (LMC) will look to put an agreement in place that will accommodate Northern Ireland membership of a PGI once an approved grass fed standard is in place. This would enable an application by Bord Bia to proceed without the risk of an objection from Northern Ireland.

The Irish Farmers Journal also understands there will be no issue processing Irish grass-fed cattle or carcase beef in Northern Ireland provided the factory is a member of the MPQAS scheme, which most northern factories are.

NI support

LMC chief executive, Ian Stevenson told the Irish Farmers Journal he was in the process of setting up a meeting with Bord Bia to “get behind the technical detail and requirements of the grass fed standard and to look at what systems we currently have in Northern Ireland and what additional work we would need to do to be able to verify things at our end”.

While there may be the basis for a meeting of minds on a North-South basis, much remains to be done to get consensus in Dublin

He also said “our industry has always made it clear throughout discussions that it supports the successful registration of an Irish Grass Fed Beef PGI which would be open to the whole geographic area of the island of Ireland. If the legal and technical processes within the PGI regulations can be properly choreographed to bring this about then I suspect there wouldn’t be much opposition from Northern Ireland stakeholders.

“While there may be the basis for a meeting of minds on a North-South basis, much remains to be done to get consensus in Dublin. There is general agreement on the merit of a PGI and branding Irish beef but the problem is in getting agreement on defining what type of beef should be eligible for inclusion.”