The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has revised downwards the amount of beef imported into Ireland in the first three months of this year to just over 8,500t.
Earlier this month, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue said that 14,119t of beef had been imported into Ireland up to the end of March.
Responding to a parliamentary question from Fine Gael Mayo TD Alan Dillon, the minister quoted trade data from the CSO from January to March 2023.
However, the CSO has told Agriland that those figures have now been amended due to a “reporting error by traders”.
CSO
According to the revised CSO data, 2,847t of beef were imported into Ireland in January, 2,973t in February and 2,685t in March.
This gives a combined figure of 8,505t, some 5,600t less than what had been previously been stated by the CSO.
The figures also show that 2,730t of beef were imported into the country in April, meaning that 11,235t of beef were imported over the first four months of the year.
Of the 11,235t of beef imports, almost 7,600t came from Britain, while around 2,500t were imported from Northern Ireland.
Beef was also imported from Spain, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany, Denmark, and Lithuania, among others.
The CSO data provided to Agriland shows that almost 154,000t of beef were exported from Ireland to destinations around the world up to the end of April.
Just over 54,000t were exported to Britain, while almost 15,000t were sent to Northern Ireland.
Other important export destinations were Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and France.
The imported and exported produce includes beef with or without a bone, offal, and preserved meat and offal.