The Bord Bia campaign promoting Irish lamb went ahead in Paris on Saturday against the backdrop of a major dispute between the Department of Agriculture and the Irish Farmers' Association on sheep-tagging.
Tagging of sheep leaving Irish farms became law last Thursday, and the IFA had called for it to be delayed because of the unavailability of tags from the outlets supplying farmers.
However, the Department said that by Friday two million tags had been issued to farmers, more than enough to satisfy the legal requirement that animals leaving farms would have to have official identity. Sheep remaining on farms do not have to be tagged until December.
The issue was further complicated because sheep farmers had sold off large numbers of animals before last Thursday, either to avoid having to tag their lambs or because tags were not available.
As a result, the price of lamb dropped by up to 30p per lb to 145p, which prompted the IFA to call on farmers to withhold supplies to bring about an increase in price. This happened near the end of the week as lamb was virtually unavailable.
Despite that, the Bord Bia promotion in the French market was launched at the prestigious Paris Country Club where representatives from the trade in France attended a barbecue reception.
Timed to coincide with a traditional French festival, the promotion in 850 retail stores across France will continue for a month in Ireland's most important sheep-meat market, worth over £120 million.
On Friday lamb-processing factories had been forced to close down because animals were not available.
Representatives from the Irish meat plants who were at the event to meet the French buyers said they hoped the difficulties could be ironed out quickly.