CATTLE slaughterings at Irish meat plants last week were 3 per cent higher than in the corresponding week in 1995 at 27,200 head, according to figures from An Bord Bia, the Irish food board.
It has reported that the throughput of bullocks at meat plants, 16,000 head, was 40 per cent up on the same week in 1995.
However, heifer slaughterings declined by 24 per cent to 5,700 head while cow throughput was 30 per cent lower than in the same week last year at 4,700 head.
The figures, experts say, have been distorted by the introduction of EU intervention which has meant that animals are being processed now which should have been slaughtered much earlier in the year had it not been for the BSE crisis.
Bord Bia's magazine, Market Monitor, reports that bullock prices are down by over 15 per cent on the same period last year, heifer prices just under 14 per cent and cow prices over 19 per cent. There has been a dramatic impact on the live export trade which has fallen by 46 per cent as only one North African destination, Egypt, is currently taking our cattle.
In the January/May period last year, 133,964 cattle had been exported from Ireland, the North, the EU and non EU countries.
To date this year, this figure has fallen to 71,649 animals.
The report said that in Britain the market for Irish supplies remained difficult last week with strong competition being reported from cheaper British product.
In France, it reported, retailers continued to purchase principally French beef and the markets in Germany and Italy, where consumption is reported to be back to 60 per cent of normal levels, was also very difficult for Irish products.