The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, has expressed confidence that Ireland will get the necessary increase in EU export refunds which will reopen the lucrative Egyptian beef market.
The 150,000-tonne market, which was worth more than €200 million in 1999 when the trade was lost over the BSE crisis in Europe, has been the target of many attempts by Ireland to have the trade resume.
Earlier this year, the Egyptians agreed to allow Irish beef back into the country but imposed very strict technical details which made the trade prohibitive and only tiny amounts of Irish beef went there.
However, last week the Minister announced the Egyptians had simplified the technical demands they were making for the cuts that could enter Egypt, removing a major obstacle to trade.
Yesterday, at the National Ploughing Championships, Mr Walsh said he had asked Dr Franz Fischler, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, to increase export refunds to facilitate the beef trade with Egypt.
"I am confident that at Friday's meeting of the EU beef committee, where the matter is on the agenda, that there will be an increase in export refunds agreed," he said.
Also at the championships, beef farmers were advised by An Bord Bia, the Irish food board, they should concentrate on finding additional outlets in continental Europe for their beef when the trade with the UK drops in the immediate future.
Mr Aidan Cotter, director of operations at Bord Bia, said that the British, who had been killing and destroying 800,000 animals aged over 30 months for the last number of years, were ending this scheme early next year.
"That means that the demand for Irish beef there will drop and we will have to find other outlets for about 70,000 tonnes of Irish beef worth an estimated €175 million."
He said Irish beef exports to continental EU markets were set to grow by more than 25 per cent this year, and it was at these markets we should now be looking. "The emergence of close relationships between producers and processors to meet the needs of specific market segments has been a key contributor to the achievement of the growth already experienced."
He said in response to the evolving market environment, the Irish beef industry had made progress in developing specialised production systems that produce beef to the specification required by premium customers. Business relationships which had grown up around these developments demonstrated the beef sector's ability to tailor production for specific markets.