Inaccurate, misleading and confusing reports about Ireland's foot-and-mouth situation are the main problems which An Bord Bia, the food board, has to deal with, according to its chief executive. "We try to clarify this with the media and our trade buyers," Mr Michael Duffy says.
"We would be spending a lot of time making sure any reports are immediately clarified or retracted and we explain to the buyers what exactly the facts are. To date, the feedback is that buyers understand the situation and have a lot of sympathy for the measures we have put in place." However, he says, a combination of BSE and foot-and-mouth scares has left Ireland and Europe in a situation where it has to explain its disease status to world consumers.
"Food is an important issue Europe has to address. That whole issue of the image of European food as well as Irish food is something the European Com mission has to address.
"Having been through the BSE situation in 1996, we know the timing of when to do things is critical. The speed of response on factual information is the priority. As the situation clarifies in other countries we will be in with trade development and other promotions programmes, and we will be very specific with different countries." Ireland has a good food image overseas, where the industry and his board have invested substantially. After the foot-and-mouth crisis is over, a major job will have to be done Europe-wide to reinforce that image. There has been significant trade disruption as a result of the one outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, but Ireland's trade with Britain has increased. While British pig production is about 90 per cent of normal, beef is at just 66 per cent and sheep-meat about 35 per cent.
"British retailers are stocking Irish beef while the supply gap is there".
Meat consumption has taken a dip all over Europe as a result of the disease scares. Bord Bia's worries at the moment relate to markets such as Russia and Japan. Russia is a huge market for Irish beef, Mr Duffy explains, taking 500,000 tonnes a year, worth about £30 million. But Germany, which has not had an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, is one of its main suppliers.
As EU imports have been banned, there is a surplus on EU markets. Japan takes 10,000 tonnes of Irish pig-meat, but Denmark, which does not have the disease, already supplies 200,000 tonnes and could increase its exports at our expense.
