A consignment of approximately 3,400 Irish cattle have been loaded on to a livestock vessel and have departed for Israel this morning (Tuesday, May 30).

The consignment has been assembled by the livestock-exporting firm Viastar and is composed of Friesian, Angus, Hereford and continental-breed cattle.

The shipment of cattle consists primarily of bulls, however, there is also approximately 1,000 Angus and continental heifers as well as approximately 200 steers on the vessel as well.

Tasked with transporting the cattle from Ireland to Israel is the Ganado Express.

The vessel previously transported a consignment of Irish cattle to Turkey earlier this year.

This is the first consignment of Irish cattle to be exported directly to Israel, with data available as far back as 1995. The market reopened to Irish cattle in November of last year.

A spokesperson from Viastar has told Agriland the firm is confident of further shipments to the Middle East country in the near future.

The consignment leaves Ireland as latest statistics show live cattle exports in the first 17 weeks of this year have increased by 8%.

Just over 170,00 head of Irish cattle and calves have been exported to date this year.

The table below shows the overall Irish cattle export destinations in the first 17 weeks of 2021, 2022 and 2023:

Destination2021202220232022/23
Netherlands34,81775,28778,901+5%
Spain46,85739,83340,054+1%
Italy14,86811,90617,380+46%
Northern Ireland30,11816,41015,837-3%
Poland9581,8227,495+311%
Bulgaria118– 2,404
Turkey –– 1,998
Hungary – –1,501
Romania – –1,090
Great Britain1,0961,2421,084-13%
Slovakia – –968
Greece746791578-27%
Belgium1,584572292-49%
Other8,0289,153647-93%
Total139,190157,016170,229+8%
Source: DAFM

Just under 7,500 cattle have been exported to Poland. Approximately 7,300 of these were calves of mixed breeds.

Of the 40,000 Irish cattle exported to Spain, approximately 36,000 of these were calves with 1,300 weanlings and the remainder being store cattle exported to Spain.

Virtually all of the Irish cattle exported to the Netherlands to date this year were calves.