The Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development has banned the export of cow beef on the bone because of concerns about BSE.
Beef is exported mainly to France and almost all is sent on the bone. French consumers prefer cow beef to the prime beef required by other markets.
The ban came into effect yesterday and applies to all cows over 40 months. It was brought in under the EU Commission regulation which banned the sale of T-bone steak. The trade was worth £40 million last year and the Department's decision effectively ends this section of the beef export trade for the short term at least.
It comes when overall market conditions for beef have not been good.
However, a meeting in Dublin yesterday between Department officials and meat trade representatives decided to ask the EU for a derogation. This would take several months and, in the meantime, no beef on the bone could be exported.
The ban will hit certain meat processors more than others and unless they can change to a boning-out system, which cannot be done immediately, these factories stand to lose heavily. There is also the question of whether customers in France will want a boned-out product.
The instruction from the Department to meat processors says that all specified risk materials must be removed before export and this includes bones.
It does not affect younger cows, culled for whatever reason, because they would not have been fed meat-and-bone meal, considered the primary source of BSE infection.
In April 2000, between 6,000 and 7,000 cows would have been slaughtered each week for commercial markets. This year, the figure has been between 1,000 and 1,500, with the remainder going for the BSE destruction scheme.