The Department of agriculture is making amendments to IT systems and an SI in order for trade to China to commence, the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said.“These are due to be finalised in a matter of weeks. In addition, the approved plants will have to deal with their own technicalities including testing requirements,” Creed said in response to a parliamentary question from Deputy Peter Burke.
The Department of agriculture is making amendments to IT systems and an SI in order for trade to China to commence, the Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said.
“These are due to be finalised in a matter of weeks. In addition, the approved plants will have to deal with their own technicalities including testing requirements,” Creed said in response to a parliamentary question from Deputy Peter Burke.
“While I expect that the trade will commence this summer, it is of course a matter for industry to decide how and when to pursue the opportunities offered.”
Total Irish agri-food trade exports to China (including Hong Kong and Macao) were €974m in 2017. China is now our third-largest market overall for agri-food exports. Dairy exports reached €667m and pigmeat exports were over €100m in 2017. These were the two largest categories of food exported to China, and for both of these commodities China was Ireland's second-largest destination market, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO) trade data.
On average, Chinese beef consumption is now 4kg per person per year, compared to average Irish consumption of 19kg of beef per capita per year. Average consumption in other Asian markets such as Japan is almost 7kg and South Korea at almost 10kg.
“That just underlines the potential for further growth in consumer demand for beef, driven by increasing urbanisation, higher disposable incomes and health awareness,” according to Creed.
Road to China
The BSE ban was lifted for Irish beef by the Chinese authorities in 2015 and an AQSIQ inspection visit, focused on competent authority systems, followed in 2016. A protocol on the export of frozen beef from Ireland to China was signed with the AQSIQ Minister Zhi Shuping in Dublin in April 2017.
The next step was a Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNCA) inspection in August/September 2017 to assess individual processing plants.
The final report of the CNCA Inspection was issued in March 2018 and following intensive negotiations between Irish and Chinese officials on a number of issues it was announced last week that the market had opened, initially for three plants.
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