FOOD EXPORTS:OFFICIALS IN Japan have confirmed that its market is fully open for Irish pork products, Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith said yesterday.
Following the discovery of dioxin in Irish pork in December, the Japanese ministry of agriculture sought clarifications from its Irish counterpart about the quality of Irish pork. While the Japanese market was never formally closed to Irish pork, the request for clarification put a question mark over it remaining fully open. But having accepted reassurances from the Irish Government, the Japanese ministry did clarify this weekend that the market is open.
Pork is the single biggest food export from Ireland to Japan. The market is worth €16 million annually but could be worth many times more than that, according to Mr Smith. The Minister said that the Japanese pork market depended on imports for at least half of the produce which reaches the shelves.
He said there would be a concerted new drive by his department and by Bord Bia to increase the market share of Irish pork and that Ireland should work towards building up a substantial share.
He did not rule out a doubling of exports to Japan in the longer term. He said that Japan was a market that demanded high standards of quality and safety, which Irish suppliers are in a position to meet.
In addition, Mr Smith will also meet the Japanese minister for agriculture this afternoon to make a case for the country lifting what is effectively a ban on Irish beef.
Beef from the EU is not available in Japan because of the risk of contamination by BSE, or mad-cow disease.
Mr Smith said the incidence of BSE in Ireland has fallen rapidly and consistently. “I will be making the case to their minister for the market for beef to be reopened because we have made huge strides towards eliminating [BSE],” he said.
He accepted that beef will never be as big a product as pork in terms of the Japanese market. The overall figures would be relatively small by comparison. “Having said that, every product and every possible market is important to us.”
