Irish beef and pork products are expected to start moving into the Russian market within weeks following the lifting of the ban on imports from Ireland because of foot-and-mouth.
The United States yesterday eased restrictions against 11 EU nations, where there have been no confirmed outbreaks, but they remain in place for Ireland, France, Britain, Greece and the Netherlands.
Officials here say the US ban on farm goods has had relatively little impact because Ireland was allowed to export to the US when it provided certification and extra heat treatment for some dairy goods.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman said that, since early March, nearly £300 million worth of goods had been exported with certification.
However, pigmeat exports, worth £10 million annually, had been hit by the ban, and it was hoped that when USDA officials visited Ireland next month to inspect controls the ban on pigmeat would be lifted.
There was a broad welcome for the Russian move yesterday. The trade was worth more than £250 million at its height in the mid-1990s. Exports of beef and pork were valued at only £30 million last year, but this was an increase on the previous year and showed signs of economic recovery there.
A spokesman for EU Commissioner for Food Safety, Mr David Byrne, said he was confident the US market would be reopened for Irish exports within weeks of the coming visit by a US veterinary inspection team to examine the foot-and-mouth situation.
Mr Michel Duffy, chief executive of An Bord Bia, said Russian veterinary experts would arrive on Tuesday, clearing the way for trade to resume immediately. Previous BSE restrictions imposed by the Russians on Cos Cavan, Monaghan, Meath, Cork, Wexford and Limerick will remain in place, as will bans on exports from Co Louth because of foot-and-mouth until June 22nd.
Mr John Smith, chief executive of the Irish Meat Association, representing Irish meat-exporting plants, welcomed the Russian move. But he said the level of beef building up in the system since the BSE crisis of last November would not be eased until Egypt, the State's largest non-EU customer, lifted its ban.
There were positive BSE test figures yesterday from the Department of Agriculture. This week there were four confirmed cases, two in Kerry, one in Monaghan and one in Meath, bringing the monthly total so far to nine, the same as May 2000.
There have been 55 cases so far this year, two fewer than in the same period last year. There have been 651 cases in the national herd since the disease was first identified here in 1989.
The Department said yesterday that blood and tissue samples from a sheep identified in a flock at Quigley's Point, Co Donegal, on Thursday had been sent for analysis to the Pirbright laboratories in England as a precaution.