The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Mr Charlie McConalogue, has announced the resumption of Irish beef exports to China. Stakeholders in the industry have obviously welcoming this development, since the Chinese market previously imported Irish beef to the tune of €96 million in 2019.
Chinese buyers of Irish beef have placed orders with a number of processors and cattle eligible for export to China have been processed in a number of facilities throughout Ireland as of Friday, last January 27th 2023.
In total twenty four Irish sites are currently listed on the China Imported Food Enterprise Registration (CIFER) website, each approved to export beef to China, with some of these sites slaughtering cattle while other sites store or process the beef.
The Irish Meat Processors in Co. Tipperary who have been approved for the export of beef to China are as follows:
ABP Cahir Kilcommon, Cahir, Co. Tipperary.
ABP Nenagh Grange, Nenagh, Co. Tipperary.
Ashbourne Meat Processors (Roscrea) Castleholding, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary.
Irish beef exports to China and including Hong Kong, latter which operates as a special administrative region with different market access rules, were worth €45 million in 2020, down from exports of €96 million in 2019. Readers will remember that in May 2020, Irish beef shipments to China were suspended following the confirmation of an isolated case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), or referred to as ‘Mad Cow Disease,’ a neurological disorder of cattle.
Note: This isolated case of BSE did not enter the food chain and posed no risk to human health. Nevertheless, beef exports to China were immediately suspended at the time, purely as a precautionary measure, and in line with the bilateral protocol on trade agreed with the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC).
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