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Hopes that Irish beef exports to China will receive clearance are rising again.
European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan will visit China along with a delegation from the European agri-food sector in May. This has given rise to expectations that Ireland will receive the final green light to export to the market.
In February 2015, An Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced that China would lift the BSE ban on Irish beef.
This paved the way for a long, drawn-out effort to get beef physically into the potentially lucrative market.
In the three years since that announcement, Irish officials from the Department of Agriculture have been engaging with their Chinese counterparts on inspections and protocols. Last week Irish officials were in China following up on access.
China has the potential to be the most lucrative export market for Irish beef outside the EU. As one of the largest importers of beef in the world, China imported in the region of 1m tonnes of beef in 2017.
The demand for beef is not slowing, with an 11% rise forecast in imports for 2018.
In recent weeks, it was announced that China is to lift the BSE bans on beef from both the UK and France.
Countries still have to go through all the protocols, inspections and correspondence that Ireland has gone through over the last three years.
So it will still be some time before either of these countries have beef on the ground in China.
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