Nearly 200 trucks loaded with food exports are due to leave Irish ports this weekend, and their arrival at British ports will test the depth of the determination of the British authorities to give them unobstructed passage.
The bulk of food exports leaves Ireland for UK and mainland continental markets between Friday and Sunday, and exporters and hauliers are waiting to see if the British authorities will act to defend their right of passage.
A spokesman for the Irish Road Haulage Association said some trucks carrying food had got safely through British ports yesterday but it was unclear what would happen overnight.
"Most of the food leaving Ireland goes at the weekend to service the markets so we expect at least 200 lorries carrying food products to be heading across the Irish Sea over the weekend. We hope and expect them to get through," he said.
He said the information coming to the association was that the number of ports being picketed had increased, but at the end of the day it would be the determination of the British police which would decide the outcome.
A spokesman for the Irish Meat Association, which represents Irish meat plants, said this weekend would be crucial for exports which were already badly hit by the dispute.
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, said yesterday the rule of law would have to be upheld even though he understood the difficulties and concerns experienced by British farmers.
However, he said, the British taxpayer would pay £1.4 billion this year in support of the industry and he would do everything he could to support them.
The Welsh Secretary, Mr Ron Davies, yesterday met local farmers to advise them on what he will attempt to do to ease their plight, but he too stressed that blocking Irish, French and Dutch food imports was not the answer.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, Mr Frank Allen, travelled to Holyhead yesterday to meet the Welsh farmers, but extracted no promises from them to end their targeting of Irish food exports.
The protest was taken from the ports yesterday to a meat-processing plant in the south of England which processes beef from Ireland.
Mr Terry Johnson, managing director of St Merryn Meat Ltd, which has nine plants, was applauded when he called for the export ban on British beef to be lifted.
"We should be lifting this ban, it is the safest beef in the world," he told the placard-waving protesters.
More than 200 farmers demonstrated outside the main gate of the processing plant at Roche near St Austell, Cornwall, as part of the growing national campaign at highlighting the crisis facing the industry.