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ICSA welcomes opening of direct route to UK for live exports

Feb 7, 2014 | Press Releases | 0 comments

7th February, 2014

ICSA president Patrick Kent has said that the decision by Stena to open up a live export route to the UK represented a highly significant boost to the beleaguered livestock sector. Welcoming the move, Mr Kent said that the news represented the culmination of months of hard work by ICSA who had brought live exporters and the shipping company to the table and pushed the Minister to ensure that the necessary approval would be forthcoming.

“Stena are open for business on the Rosslare to Fishguard route from this week. This is the first time in many years that there will be a regular live export route from the Republic to Britain. While it has been possible to transport livestock from Larne to Stranraer, the economics of that did not add up when the final destination was Southern England.”

“The news could not have come at a more opportune time as Irish livestock producers struggle to get cattle killed. While the live export trade for weanlings has shown some positive signs with Greece emerging as a potential alternative market to complement exports to Italy, the fact remains that suckler farmers are very concerned about the outlook. As our nearest neighbour, the British market is potentially a good market for cattle, particularly given that British beef prices are the highest in Europe. The differential between Irish and British beef price is of the order of €250 on a typical R3 steer.”

Mr Kent added that exporting cattle to GB was not only sensible because of the price differential but also on other economic and welfare grounds. “Compared with exporting to Europe and North Africa, the UK is a much less costly option in terms of transport costs while at the same time, the relatively short journey means that animal welfare is not a problem. In fact, if we could export significant numbers to the UK, then there would be less need to go to places like North Africa. Also, it must be borne in mind that the British beef finisher has significant cost advantages in feeding cattle due to having ready and close access to cereals and other food by-products.”

Mr Kent complemented the Minister and his officials for taking a helpful approach to issuing approval to Stena. “ICSA has been pushing the Minister to ensure that there was no unreasonable hold-up and this confirms that Minister Coveney understands the importance of live exports providing much needed competition.”

The news was warmly welcomed by ICSA Munster vice-president John Halley, suckler chairman Dermot Kelleher and beef chairman Edmond Phelan. They said that the challenge was now there for exporters to find UK customers. “We are delighted that the ICSA efforts have yielded some progress but there are still concerns that there will be some resistance to this in certain quarters. However, the alternative to competition for live exports is that we accept the current situation in the cattle trade and advise suckler farmers to wind down operations. This is the first bit of light at the end of the tunnel in some time and we must capitalise on it.”

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