British beef exports back on EU menu after a decade in wilderness |
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Wed, 03 May 2006 12:35
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BRUSSELS - The food chain and animal health committee at the EU voted to lift the ban on British beef and beef products in March giving the beef industry in the country a big boost. The ban had been put in place in 1996 as a move to stop the spread of the mad cow disease, which had ravaged the country. Accordingly live cattle born in the UK after 1 August 1996 can now be exported.
Beef from cattle slaughtered after 15 June 2005 is also to be exported, Meat producers are understandably delighted with the move, but animal rights activists have expressed dismay. "This is the best day for British farming for a good many years. It marks the end of 10 years in the wilderness for the British beef industry," said Anthony Gibson, National Farmers Union spokesman. But Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) and the RSPCA are against this process since they say that animals suffer on long journeys.
Meanwhile Scotland has started exporting beef to the rest of the EU states. Before the beef ban of 1996, Scotland had 42,000 tonnes of beef sales bringing in £120 million. Environment Minister Ross Finnie was present when the first consignment of the Scottish beef was loaded onto trucks.
The interim chairman of Quality Meat Scotland, Donald Biggar was also present on the occasion, "This is initial consignment of boxed beef - two tonnes - going to Belgium and Holland, to the top restaurants out there," he said. "Throughout these long 10 years, the Scotch beef industry and Quality Meat Scotland have gone to great lengths to maintain contacts with our customers in Europe - in Italy, France, Belgium, Holland and other countries."
He said that these customers were already demanding their products, but the market had become more competitive in the last decade. "They have in the meantime been supplied by others so we have to compete to get back to the levels we had before the ban," Biggar added. "There is certainly a demand for this premium Scotch product."
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