France has become the fourth EU Member State to gain clearance to export beef to the United States market, reports AgriLand.
In January 2015, Ireland was the first member state to gain approval to the US market. Since then it has been joined by the Netherlands, Lithuania and now, France.
A statement today, January 16th, from the European Commission said that the US has announced the lifting of the embargo on imports of beef from France.
The Commission welcomed the decision which it says represents a new stage in reopening a closed market since the crisis of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the 1990s.
The Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, has said that after similar decisions taken for Ireland, Lithuania and the Netherlands, the Commission welcomes the decision of the US to authorise imports of beef from France.
“This decision of the United States clearly demonstrates what we can achieve by having an open and constructive relationship with one of our most important trading partners,” he said.
The US market was closed to beef from the EU since January 1998, when the US introduced restrictions on imports of beef, sheep and goats, following the BSE crisis.
The volume of Irish beef shipped to the US market, as of early December, stood in the region of 3,800 tonnes since the market opened to exports in January 2015.
The Minister for Agriculture, Michael Creed, said an estimated 1,800 tonnes of Irish beef was exported in 2015, valued at 14 million euros.
“This trade will be surpassed in 2016 because 2,000 tonnes have already been exported so far this year," he said.