Customers from eight different countries have purchased over 194,000 Irish dairy calves to date this year, according to Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) figures.
The busiest period in the Irish calf export season is in the first half of the year with numbers of calves being exported generally remaining low in the second half of the year.
DAFM figures show 194,301 calves have been exported from Ireland in the first 30 weeks of this year with just over 194,000 (194,061) of these going to eight key markets.
The table below details calf export numbers in the first 30 weeks of this year:
Calf export numbers have declined by 4% this year with the number of calves sold to the Netherlands is down 27%.
Despite this, the Netherlands remains the largest export market for Irish calves with customers from the country buying over 77,400 Irish calves in the first 30 weeks of this year.
Stakeholders in the Irish calf trade have warned that recent developments in the Netherlands may restrict market access for Irish calves after 2025.
The number of calves sold to the Netherlands and Italy has fallen by 27% and 10% respectively.
Despite this, there has been growth in the numbers of Irish calves going to other market destinations such as Spain, Poland, Romania and Hungary with numbers of calves going to these market destinations up by 29%, 8%, 107% and 66% respectively.
A new market destination for Irish calves this year has been Croatia with over 3,000 calves being sold to the country.
There has been an increase in the number of beef-sired dairy calves going for export this year – in line with the increased usage of beef sires on cows in the dairy herd.
Despite a 4% drop, the number of calves exported from Ireland to date this year has been the second-highest in the past decade.