Calf exports threatened by EU rules - Department

EU plans to tighten up animal transport rules will “negatively impact the longer-term future” of the live export trade, with the export of unweaned calves particularly at risk.

That is according to the Department of Agriculture briefing handed to Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon when he assumed his ministry.

The briefing warns that the proposed changes to journey time limits, feeding intervals, age at transport and space allowances would hit calf exports.

Reform of these EU animal transport rules is currently before an expert group, but the timescale for progress is unclear. There are “several immediate risks to trade in young calves on which Ireland’s dairy, beef sectors currently depend”, the briefing states.

These include an interpretation by European Commission officials that calf exporters have a “legal obligation” to feed unweaned calves on ferry journeys from Ireland to neighbouring member states and a judicial review on this issue taken by an NGO alleging Ireland is non-compliant with current EU calf transport rules.

The Department’s interpretation of the regulations in question is that there is no such general obligation to feed calves on these journeys and that the calf exports rules enforced in Ireland go beyond the minimum standards set down in EU law.

Calf exports dominated the live export trade last year, with the approximately 200,000 calves that were shipped accounting for roughly half the number of cattle exported live.

“The live trading of animals remains under intense scrutiny at both a local and European level,” it said.

The Department stated that calf welfare is a “matter of significant societal and consumer concern, particularly on foot of recent media reports on the subject”.

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