The lifting of a 10-year ban on the export of beef from the UK by the EU will increase competition for Irish exporters in Europe but will normalise the beef industry, the Irish Food Board has said.
A Bord Bia spokesman said that Irish exporters had made tremendous strides in the continental markets in the past 10 years and it would be hard to dislodge these contacts.
"In essence, we are looking at the end of the BSE crisis and that is good for beef consumption generally, but it will increase competition in places like Italy and the Netherlands," he said.
In the last year of trading before exports from Britain were stopped, it exported 274,000 tonnes of beef worth £520 million (€758 million), mainly to France.
A spokesman for Meat Industry Ireland, which represents the meat factories, said he was glad the ban had been lifted as any ban on beef did not serve the industry well.
"However, it will make our lives no easier especially since the EU Commission also announced a 10 per cent cut in export refunds just after the ban was lifted," he said.
"This will make it even more difficult for us to sell beef on international markets like Russia and Algeria. It makes those markets virtually impossible."
The unanimous decision of the EU's standing veterinary committee was welcomed by the National Farmers Union in Britain which said it was the best possible news for the industry in a decade. There was also a welcome in Northern Ireland which has also been locked out of world markets by the ban. Ulster Farmers Union president Campbell Tweed welcomed the decision.
The decision now has to be endorsed by the commission and approved by the European Parliament which is expected to be achieved by early April.