Stena Line’s livestock sailings from Rosslare, Co. Wexford to Cherbourg, France, have been cancelled for another 12 days.
The news threatens a major setback to the Irish calf trade as the Stena Line vessel ‘Stena Horizon’ will remain in dry dock for one week longer than was previously anticipated.
The vessel entered dry dock on Tuesday, March 29, and was expected to resume sailing on April 12; however, the vessel will now not resume sailing until Tuesday, April 19.
While the Stena Horizon ferry is in dry dock, no livestock will be transported by Stena Line from Rosslare to Cherbourg.
At this time of the year, the Stena Horizon brings trucks carrying Irish calves from Rosslare to a lairage in Cherbourg, France, where the calves are rested and fed before continuing their journey to a new home in countries on mainland Europe.
While the dry-dock period is a routine annual check-up for the vessel, it usually takes place a few weeks later every year.
The check-up is necessary as in order for a ferry to carry trucks with livestock on board, it must be properly licenced to do so.
Livestock exports
This setback comes as the most recent calf export figures reveal that 2022 is shaping up to be a good year.
In the first 12 weeks of 2022, a total of over 72,000 calves had been exported. This year’s figure is just 3,000 head short of the 75,143 head of calves exported in the same time period of 2019.
2019 was a record year for calf exports; 2020 and 2021 were slightly more subdued.
While a certain level of calves are still getting out to Europe, numbers are expected to be greatly reduced for the three weeks that the Stena Horizon has been in dry dock.
It is hoped that the vessel will resume sailing on Tuesday, April 19, and no further delays in will be encountered.