Heavily-subsidised Irish beef is being "dumped" in southern Africa, where it is contributing to growing poverty, unemployment and environmental problems, according to a new report.
With EU beef producers receiving £2.50 in export refunds for every £1 of meat they export to South Africa, the market for local farmers and traders has collapsed, the report from the Brussels-based European Research Office says. Thanks to these subsidies, EU beef sells for less than half the wholesale price for beef in South Africa.
Ireland accounted for 40 per cent of EU's exports of beef to South Africa between 1994 and 1996. This share has risen further since the worldwide ban on British beef over BSE. Post-apartheid South Africa is now firmly established as an important export market for Irish beef.
In 1997, the EU spent almost £6 billion on supports for the beef industry under the Common Agricultural Policy. "Against the background of these CAP programmes in the beef sector, concepts such as `competitiveness' and `the free market' simply have no meaning," the report states.
The report says Namibia, where 95 per cent of the rural population depends on cattle production for cash income, has been hardest hit by the dumping. Since 1993, when South Africa got rid of tariff controls for beef, EU exports have increased seven-fold, thanks to export refunds. By 1995, they peaked at 46,000 tonnes, compared to 6,600 tonnes two years earlier. EU farmers receive about three times more for their cattle than South African traders pay for EU beef cuts.
"Such a level of market penetration would have caused outrage amongst European farmers, had the position been reversed," the report says. Farming associations in Namibia and South Africa are said to be "bewildered and outraged" by "such blatant dumping of EU beef surpluses".
Ironically, at the same time, the EU is providing 3.7 million ecus (£2.9 million) in aid to help develop livestock markets in northern Namibia.
Prices for Namibian farmers have fallen by almost 20 per cent in three years. Worse still, farmers have been left with large numbers of unsold cattle at a time of extreme drought. This has increased pressure on land and water resources, with the poorest sections of the population suffering most.
The report, which was commissioned by Comhlamh, the association of returned development workers, warns of accelerating urban drift, the closure of abattoirs and growing unemployment if the dumping problem is not addressed.
A reduction in EU export subsidies introduced last year has only slightly altered the situation, and the EU's market share in South Africa still stands at seven times what it was in 1994.
The report says current proposals for CAP reform will not alleviate the problems caused by export refunds.
A separate report from the European Research Office finds that heavily-subsidised fruit exports from the EU have caused massive job losses in the South African canning industry. The problem has been made worse by extensive fraud and overclaiming of subsidies under the CAP, mainly by Greek producers.
Yesterday, the Irish Farmers' Association ended a three-day occupation of the Department of Agriculture in Dublin. The IFA is seeking improved terms for farmers putting cattle into the EU's beef intervention scheme.
