Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has announced improved market access for Irish beef exports to Saudi Arabia with the formal removal of restrictions on meat products sourced from cattle aged over 30 months at slaughter.
The lifting of the restriction was agreed in principle at a meeting between the Minister and the leadership of the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) in Riyadh during a trade mission to the Gulf Region in February.
Following that meeting, department officials, supported by the Embassy of Ireland in Riyadh and the agricultural attaché for the Gulf Region, engaged with the SFDA to finalise the necessary technical details and remove the age-related requirement from the existing export health certificate for beef.
The minister confirmed that these talks have successfully concluded.
Market access
Minister McConalogue said: “Today’s announcement is particularly important as it comes as a direct result of the progress achieved during the in-person trade mission to the Gulf region, my first in-person event.
“I look forward to pursuing further access achievements in target markets in the programme of ministerial trade missions planned for the coming months.
“It is my hope and ambition that this market can become an important one for beef exporters which, in turn, will benefit the incomes of our world-class beef farmers.”
The revised certificate and a trader notice advising industry of the new arrangements will issue shortly, according to the minister.
Beef exports to China
Meanwhile, the Minister McConalogue is expected to travel to China later this year in an effort to push for the resumption of Irish beef exports to the country.
There has been a ban on Irish beef imports in China since May 2020, following an atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) case in a dead cow in Co. Tipperary.
Ireland has since been granted negligible risk status for BSE by the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE).
Despite what the minister described as huge “political will”, Irish beef exports to China have still not been allowed to resume.