DUBLIN/BRUSSELS (Reuters) — Ireland has become the first European Union country to receive permission to export beef to the United States, 17 years after Washington banned EU imports over BSE.
This follows a successful inspection by U.S. authorities of Ireland’s beef production system, which was completed in July, the Irish agriculture department said Jan. 5.
The ban on EU imports had formally been lifted in March.
“This isn’t just a new market, it’s the highest value market in the world now. I’d be very disappointed if we weren’t selling somewhere between 50 and 100 million euros ($70 million to $100 million) worth of beef into the U.S. this year,” said Irish agriculture minister Simon Coveney
Read Also
Alberta farm lives up to corn capital reputation
Farm to Table Tour highlighting to consumers where their food comes from features Molnar Farms which grows a large variety of market fruits and vegetables including corn, with Taber being known as the Corn Capital of Canada.
The United States banned imports from the EU in 1998 following a BSE epidemic that spread from Britain to mainland Europe.
The latest U.S. decision clears the way for Irish authorities to approve individual beef plants to export to the U.S., the Irish government said.
It did not give a date for when beef exports to the United States might resume but said it would step up work with Irish beef plants so the trade could start as soon as possible.
A report on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s audit of Ireland’s beef slaughter inspection system concluded that Ireland had “consistently and effectively implemented a beef slaughter inspection system that satisfies all criteria for equivalence with the United States system.”
The EU has urged the U.S. to act quickly to extend the approval to the rest of the 28-nation bloc.
“This announcement sends an important and positive signal to the other EU member states who have requested the U.S. to re-establish access to the U.S. beef market,” it said in a statement.
