Cattle marts suffered a 10 per cent drop in turnover mainly because of the BSE crisis. However, the sector is showing signs of recovery, the chairman of the Irish Co operatives Society's (ICOS) national cooperative marts, Mr Ted Hunt, told delegates at the organisation's annual general meeting yesterday.

He said preliminary results for the sector showed that turnover had dropped from £650 million in 1995 to £585 million last year, because of reduced cattle volumes and prices.

The BSE crisis dominated the overall cattle and beef sector for most of 1996 and completely overshadowed the new TB scheme introduced last April, said Mr Hunt.

Mr Hunt said that, despite all the problems encountered last year, the cattle and beef sectors had shown "great resilience" and were now beginning to show real signs of recovery.