CHINA, THE last market to remain closed to Irish pork products since the dioxin scare in December 2008, has been fully reopened, Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith announced yesterday.
The announcement follows meetings in Beijing between Mr Smith and the Chinese minister for agriculture Han Changfu and the minister for quality, supervision and inspection Wang Yong.
The news was welcomed by Irish farm organisations, and the Minister said he believed there would be a potential trade immediately of €20 million.
When the market was closed to Irish exporters in 2008, the trade was worth just over €10 million. All the Irish product in China at that time was destroyed under independent supervision.
The Minister expressed his appreciation of the engagement on the part of the Chinese authorities and also conveyed his appreciation to officials in his department, Bord Bia and the Irish Embassy in Beijing.
During the meetings Mr Smith also pressed for the opening of the Chinese market to Irish beef and other meat products.
In the case of beef, he emphasised his commitment to fulfilling China’s requirements for the resumption of this trade. He called for an intensification of the dialogue between the two countries on the issue.
The Minister said it was vital Ireland be positioned to benefit from the expected growth of meat consumption in China with its population of over 1.3 billion and growing urbanisation where incomes were three times higher than in rural areas.
The chairman of Irish Farmers’ Association’s national pigs and pigmeat committee, Tim Cullinan, welcomed the news, and said access to international markets had been one of the obstacles to an increase in Irish pig prices.
He said data in 2008 showed exports to China from Ireland accounted to almost 25 per cent of all international pigmeat exports.
On Thursday the Public Accounts Committee of the Oireachtas was told the dioxin crisis had cost the country €140 million in compensation. The secretary general of the Department of Agriculture, Tom Moran, said the European Commission had promised to pay €20 million of this to help the industry recover.