Ireland's ailing beef industry is expected to receive a significant boost shortly as the Libyan authorities prepare to reopen the live cattle trade with this State before the end of September, writes Maol Muire Tynan.
Senior sources said yesterday they had been informed that Libya was ready to ratify an agreement with Ireland to resume live cattle exports within weeks. Libya has banned live beef exports since March 1996, following the BSE scare. A spokesman for the Department of Agriculture said it was still awaiting formal ratification of the agreement signed between the two countries in July but was "increasingly optimistic" the prohibition would be lifted shortly.
Problems for the beef industry have been exacerbated by the crisis in Russia while Egypt, Ireland's second-largest market, has cut cattle prices. European consumption of beef has not fully recovered from the BSE debacle and factory prices are down to 80p a lb.