A major announcement on the full reopening of the beef trade between Ireland and Egypt is expected late next week, beef industry sources said last night.
This announcement is expected to deliver more than previous ones which have seen the "political" opening of the market but only minuscule sales of beef in Egypt.
This time it is understood the European Commissioner for Agriculture and Fisheries, Dr Franz Fischler, has come on board to help reopen the trade which was worth almost €300 million when it ended in 2000.
When he was in Dublin recently for the Irish Farmers Journal debate on CAP reform, Dr Fischler met the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh.
Following the meeting, Dr Fischler revealed he had discussions with Mr Walsh on the reopening of the market, which was closed because of Egyptian concerns about Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in Europe.
Mr Walsh has been pressurising Dr Fischler to provide EU export refunds to assist Irish exporters win back the markets which have been closed.
Irish exporters reckon they will need substantial EU export refunds to sell into Egypt again because, in the absence of Irish beef, Latin American, Australian and Indian beef is being sold there.
Eighteen months ago, the Egyptians announced they would allow beef from Ireland, France and the Netherlands into their country. However, European exporters could not compete on price with international competitors.
A huge diplomatic and technical effort to win back the Egyptian market has been undertaken by the State for what was once Ireland's largest non-EU outlet for beef and live cattle.
There have been high-level technical delegations from Egypt here, and Irish diplomatic and veterinarian teams have visited Cairo.
The Russian market remains the only key international beef market currently open to Ireland since 2000, according to Mr Michael Duffy, chief executive of the Irish Food Board.
Mr Duffy said Irish exports to Russia last year were 83,000 tonnes, an increase of 40,000 tonnes or 93 per cent over the previous year.
The UK, he said, continued to be the principal outlet for Irish beef during last year, and it took 245,000, an increase of 11 per cent on 2001.
In Bord Bia's annual report for 2002 which was published this week, Mr Duffy wrote that beef exports to Continental markets underwent a sustained recovery during most of last year following a 42 per cent decline in 2001.
The Netherlands was one of the main EU markets for Irish beef, and took 30,000 tonnes. Exports of 22,000 tonnes to Italy were double that of the previous year.
While the French market was slower to recover, Scandinavian countries imported 30,000 tonnes beef last year, compared to 13,000 tonnes in 2001.