Irish get access to US manufacturing beef

Ireland has become the first European country to get access to the US manufacturing market.

On Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Michael Creed announced that the USA had given Ireland access to its manufacturing beef market. Beef for the manufacturing trade ends up as mince, burgers or similar products.

“I am delighted with this confirmation that the US authorities have recognised the equivalent standards overseen by my Department, and granted access to Irish manufacturing beef, building on our existing access from last year. This is the culmination of over a year of intensive work between my Department and its US counterparts,” Minister Creed said.

However, Irish beef processors face difficult and stringent tests before accessing the manufacturing market. The US usually requires carcases to be washed with lactic acid. However, Ireland has negotiated a system which avoids this practice.

In its stead, a raft of new testing will have to be deployed now to determine “baseline levels” for E coli and SPEC in carcases. Processors will have to carry out these tests over a period of a few weeks at a time.

Once the processors have received clearance on these tests, it is expected that samples from each individual container will be taken for testing.

These stringent rules will result in Irish beef for the manufacturing trade not hitting the States for at least three months. Processors are also expected to look cautiously at these new systems as they are quite onerous, especially at a time when European prices are outperforming US prices.

Should a positive case of E coli be found in a consignment sent to the US, it could have knock-on implications for the overall Irish beef trade.

Meat Industry Ireland, the IFA, the ICSA and the ICMSA have all welcomed the announcement.