The beef industry started its fight back against falling consumption in Dublin yesterday when 170 buyers, processors, producers and marketeers from across Europe met at the Bord Bia "Winning with Beef" conference.
Bord Bia's chief executive, Mr Michael Duffy, said the future of the industry must embrace all European beef because of the interdependence of markets.
He told the international gathering that in the absence of new contingencies, now was the time to move from crisis management mode and move forward with the confidence gained in the past.
Mr Michael Penford, of the Taylor Nelson Sofres research company, told delegates that consumer confidence in beef remained strong, ranging from 87 per cent in the Netherlands to 73 per cent in Germany.
However, the confirmation of BSE in mainland Europe had hit consumption hard. Over half of all German consumers and 40 per cent of all Italians were now purchasing less beef than a year ago.
Beef consumption between October 1st and December 31st last year, fell by between 30 per cent and 40 per cent in all major mainland European markets.
He said 62 per cent of Italian consumers gave BSE as the reason for their decrease in consumption as did 51 per cent of German consumers, 47.5 per cent of French consumers and 43 per cent of Spanish consumers.
British beef consumption, however, increased by 9 per cent over 1996 levels, the year of their most difficult BSE crisis.
Ireland had increased consumption by 20 per cent , Sweden by 17 per cent and Spain by 5 per cent.
However, beef consumption was down significantly in many other European markets and the sharpest falls were recorded in Germany, down 11 per cent, and the Netherlands, down 10 per cent.
Mr Michael Behan, chairman of the Irish Meat Association, which represents the meat factories, said his members would be seeking a labelling system in the EU which did not discriminate against imported beef.
He said he would like to see EU supports for beef producers linked to quality and said one of the main problems facing the industry in Ireland was increased processing costs which had risen by 40 per cent in the abattoir and 100 per cent in the boning hall.
Delegates were told by Dr Reinhard Kaeppel, assistant vice president, Quality Assurance, McDonalds Group, Europe, that McDonalds had introduced marketing measures to deal with the crisis including an assurance to customers that its burgers were 100 per cent beef and contained no offal or other risk material.