SIGNIFICANT relief for Irish beef producers is on the way from Brussels with the EU beef management committee today set to raised export premiums by as much as 10 per cent.
Irish farm leaders, who yesterday met Agriculture Commissioner Mr Franz Fischler, welcomed the expected move which they said would allow the reopening of export markets and would stimulate prices at home.
IFA president Mr John Donnelly also said the Commissioner promised beef intervention would continue.
Meanwhile, it became clear that new British proposals for a cull of infected BSE herds are deemed insufficient to warrant a lifting of the beef export ban at Monday's key meeting of farm ministers. Sources in several member states say the proposed cull of an additional 42,000 head would not reassure the European public.
Sources predict the meeting may yet be willing to signal a lifting of the ban on beef by products, such as gelatin and tall ow, but believe there is no possibility of the overall export ban being lifted.
Speaking after the meeting with Mr Fischler, Mr Ray O'Malley, chairman of the IFA's beef livestock committee, said the association was seeking a 20 per cent increase in export refunds to boost markets.
The Commissioner had signalled he understood the need for a significant increase in the premiums.
A 10 per cent increase, he said, would represent an increase of 5p per lb. The increase would help to reopen markets in Egypt and Libya, he said.
A source in the Commission confirmed that a small adjustment in the premiums might be seen as a first step by the market, and that the Commissioner accepted the logic of a one off substantial increase.
A spokesman for the Minister for Agriculture would not be drawn on the scope of the new British proposals, but said experts would examine them closely over the weekend. Mr Yates would set out what he believed would be necessary at Monday's meeting.
The tentative British plans submitted to the Commission late on Wednesday in a letter from the British Agriculture Minister, Mr Douglas Hogg, would lead to some 42,000 head being slaughtered - those most likely to have been infected - in addition to the agreed measures such as the removal of animals over 30 months from the food chain.
The scheme would affect about 2,000 herds, focusing on animals originating in herds with a high incidence of BSE in the early 1990s, and combine both slaughtering and travel restrictions on targeted herds. British officials say the additional measures could cut the incidence of BSE in Britain by a further 15-30 per cent.
The spokesman for Mr Fischler, who welcomed Mr Hogg's detailed proposals, emphasised however that the letter was not in the form of a firm proposal, but a non paper" which set out a possible proposal.
It includes a proviso that the targeted slaughter programme will only be introduced "as part of a process towards the lifting of the beef export ban", according to Ministry of Agriculture officials. But Mr Fischler's spokesman said the Commission could not accept any preconditions.
The British Ministry of Agriculture is to send officials to Brussels to discuss the programme in more detail today.
