The reopening of Egypt to Irish beef must translate into better prices for farmers or else ‘it’s irrelevant’, according to the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA).

Earlier today, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Michael Creed, announced that his Department and the relevant Egyptian authorities reached agreement on Irish beef exports.

The Chairperson of ICMSA’s Livestock Committee, Michael Guinan, said that obviously the more markets that were available to Irish beef exports the healthier the outlook for the sector and he paid tribute to the efforts of the officials responsible.

But he stressed that that securing new markets or ‘re-opening’ markets closed for whatever reason could not be seen as an end-in-itself.

“It cannot be stressed often enough that announcing new export opportunities is practically pointless unless primary beef producers can see a resultant improvement in their cattle prices.”

These increased export opportunities have to translate back into better prices for the farmers or they quickly become just irrelevant as far as ICMSA is concerned.

“This year is going to see increased numbers coming into the cycle and there’s a level of concern about the prices that are going to be available.

“We’re happy to acknowledge new or re-opening markets but we do think that the priority must be a serious ‘step-up’ in terms of live exports.”

He said that ICMSA still thinks that the Minister and his officials should be looking at a specialist unit within the Department that is focused on delivering that and working through the obstacles – regulatory, licensing, shipping, financial – that have repeatedly stopped that trade being developed.

Five Irish plants have been approved to commence exports to Egypt under the agreement, once the necessary technical arrangements are in place.

Minister Creed said that prior to their ban on EU beef in the late 1990’s it was one of the largest markets for Irish beef at the time.

This announcement on Egypt is another example of achieving the market access goals in the Food Wise 2025 strategy.

My Department will continue to work closely with Bord Bia, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Irish exporters both to seek new markets for our exports but also to enhance the existing levels of market access.

Egypt is the largest consumer market in the Middle East and North Africa with around 95m consumers, according to the Department.

It is the third biggest destination for Irish agri-food exports to Africa with exports of €45m in 2015, almost exclusively dairy (€30.5m) and seafood (€11m).