The spiralling cost of the BSE crisis could break the EU farm budget, the Agriculture Commissioner, Mr Franz Fischler, warned yesterday.
Speaking in Brussels as EU agriculture ministers agreed to introduce tougher measures to deal with BSE, Mr Fischler acknowledged that the crisis was graver than expected. "The crisis on the beef market goes further than one might think. The latest market indications are alarming," he said.
Beef consumption in the EU has fallen by an average of 27 per cent since the crisis began and Mr Fischler said European beef exporters could expect to lose more than half of their market outside the EU. If beef sales fall by an average of 10 per cent throughout this year, as the Commission expects, the cost of buying surplus beef for intervention will eat up the entire EU budget for agriculture.
Mr Fischler called for a reduction of the cattle population in order to avoid increasing the beef surplus. Agriculture ministers spent five hours discussing BSE, with part of the talks taking place over a lunch of beef.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, told his fellow ministers it was unfair that many EU member-states were not implementing the Purchase For Destruction scheme. Under the scheme, the EU pays farmers 70 per cent of the market price of each animal destroyed, with the member-state paying the remaining 30 per cent.
"There are a number of member-states who have opted out of the scheme. In addition, the scheme does not seem to be operating fully in other member-states. This leaves the burden of market adjustment on those few member-states which are operating it fully. Given the huge costs involved, this is manifestly unfair, as all member-states will benefit from the market adjustment," Mr Walsh said.
In an attempt to improve consumer confidence in beef, the ministers agreed to new measures to reduce the risk of BSE. These include a ban on mechanically recovered meat and the pressure cooking of animal fats for use in livestock feed.
The ministers rejected a call to reduce from 30 months to 24 the age at which cattle must be tested for BSE or destroyed.
Mr Walsh told his colleagues that Ireland was particularly vulnerable to the effects of the BSE crisis on account of its large export market. He suggested that if the EU increased the level of export refunds, Irish beef could again be accepted in key markets such as Egypt and the Gulf states.
