Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney has welcomed the opening of the Canadian market to Irish beef and Oman to Irish beef and sheepmeat.

The Canada development is part of an EU-wide deal brokered by the European Commission. There will be no age restriction on beef exported there.

The agreement with authorities in the Sultanate of Oman on veterinary health certification for the export of beef and sheepmeat was reached separately, by the Irish authorities.

“The critical issue regarding Canada is that it is open for our manufacturing beef,” said IFA livestock committee chair Henry Burns.

Michael Guinan, ICMSA’s livestock chair, warned that the news would be irrelevant unless it translates to a meaningful rise in the prices paid to beef producers.

Canada a step closer

The announcement of the Canadian market being opened to the EU is welcome but doesn’t mean we will be shipping quantities of beef anytime soon.

Veterinary certification has to be agreed and, as has been demonstrated with the USA approval process, it is likely to take some time. Getting full cuts of muscle meat should be straightforward but we can expect manufacturing beef to be more of a challenge. Inevitably it is the opportunity for manufacturing beef that would be the most exciting to the Irish beef industry.

And when certification is sorted, next up is the issue of quota. We can expect the Uruguayans to use up the 2016 quota early in the new year, so it is likely to be January 2017 when Ireland has full unrestricted access.