Ferry companies sailing from Ireland to Cherbourg, France, have confirmed they will not bring livestock lorries on sailings scheduled for this week.
Both Irish Ferries and Stena Line have confirmed to Agriland that they will not carry livestock for health and safety reasons due to Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice.
One ferry company representative said that tomorrow’s Cherbourg sailing (Thursday, February 17) has been cancelled, adding that the weekend sailing “definitely wont be taking livestock” and may be “cancelled altogether” due to the storms.
These developments will put further pressure on traders selling calves to mainland Europe as it delays the supply of calves by a week.
Sailings are expected to return to normal next week; however, it is not uncommon for weather to impact the sea transport of livestock to mainland Europe at this time of year.
Transport disruption of this kind highlights how vulnerable the calf trade with mainland Europe is; and how dependent the export-type calf trade is on sailing conditions.
Bord Bia confidence
Despite this week’s setback, Bord Bia’s beef sector manager, Mark Zieg, said he is confident of a good year ahead for Irish cattle exports.
Speaking at Bord Bia’s Meat Marketing seminar in January, he said the number of cattle exported in 2021 fell by 7% on 2020 export levels and 17% when compared to 2019 figures.
Despite this, just under 250,000 cattle were exported from Ireland in 2021 with weanling exports back 44% on 2021 levels.
Zieg was optimistic about cattle export levels bouncing back in 2022 saying:
“We can expect to see some recovery in exports to the continent in 2022 as a result of “low supplies in Europe.”