DEAR SIR: Let’s hope and pray that there will be no efforts made to resurrect CETA because, if ratified, it would be the final nail in the coffin for the country’s 19,717 beef farmers who are literally on their knees. They will not be able to compete with cheap Canadian beef entering the EU.

Teagasc, in its National Farm Survey: Results 2015, states that the average family farm income across the 84,259 farms represented by the survey was €26,303 in 2015. Cattle-rearing farms have the lowest average farm income, a mere €12,660, with a majority (53%) of cattle rearing farms earning less than €10,000 in 2015.

The Department of Agriculture’s briefing document Beef Analysis 2025 shows that beef accounts for 30% of gross farm output, making it the most important primary agriculture product in Ireland at farm level. We export 90% of the beef produced here making us the biggest net exporter of beef in the EU and the fifth-biggest in the world. Exports are in the region of 500,000t, worth over €2bn. The UK remains the dominant export market for Irish beef, representing 53% of exports or 250,000t. Most of the rest of our beef exports (45%) go to continental Europe, particularly France, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.

Consumption in the EU, the market which accounts for over 98% of Irish exports, has declined since 2010 to under 7.8mT and is expected to remain at that level into 2023. Current imports into the EU amount to 300,000t and the import requirement in the coming years is not predicted to go much beyond this. Under the CETA trade agreement, the EU would be granting Canada the right to export into the EU 50,000t of beef, which would include 15,000t of frozen beef, 30,838t of fresh/chilled beef and 4,162t of fresh beef.

Beef consumption is expected to remain static across the EU and we would have a situation where Ireland, with beef prices hovering around €3.65/kg, would have to compete with Canadian beef trading at €2.50/kg if CETA, which An Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Fine Gael party are so anxious to ratify, goes ahead.

Beef farmers will not be able to take another hit if Canadian beef enters the EU. Many beef farmers will be forced out of business. It’s ironic that one arm of the Government, namely the Department of agriculture is working to increase beef output while another arm, the cabinet is hellbent on ratifying a trade deal which will flood the EU with beef.