NFU Cymru cautiously welcomes meat export news
NFU Cymru has cautiously welcomed this afternoon's news that meat and meat product exports to Europe can resume next Friday, 12 October, provided there are no further outbreaks outside a 200km area around the surveillance zone in Surrey, but they will be subject to strict and constraining conditions.
Dai Davies, NFU Cymru President said, "Whilst we welcome today's news, as it is a move forward, the conditions tied to it will limit our ability to take advantage of the export opportunity. We are currently in the situation where we have had a build up of stock for the last two and a half months since exports were banned and so there is a need to remove the backlog before we can expect this re-opening of the export market to have any meaningful impact. To address this 10-week backlog a light lamb disposal scheme remains essential.
"There are normally 1.1million, 35%, of Welsh lambs exported at this time of year and there is a danger that if the backlog isn't cleared as quickly as possible it will overhang the whole of the domestic market. With the export market being so critical to Wales it is essential that we are able to take full advantage of it but the conditions that the EC has laid down will inhibit the extent to which we can re-establish the export trade."
Today's decision by the European Commission is subject to the following conditions:
• Animals slaughtered for the export market must have been resident on their farm for 30 days;
• For 21 days prior to these animals being moved, no new susceptible animals can have come onto the same holding.
• At abattoirs, animals must be killed immediately, with pre and post-slaughter inspections for foot and mouth.
• Meat would have to be quarantined for 24 hours and could only be dispatched if there was no suspicion of disease on the farm of origin.
Dai Davies concluded, "Although today's news is a step in the right direction it is subject to tight conditions and is nowhere near a full lifting of the export ban and NFU Cymru will continue to fight on in helping Welsh livestock farmers get back to 'business as usual'."
