February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — A bailout program for Ireland’s 100,000 beef farmers that ended Saturday has cost taxpayers £200 million and involved the slaughter of about 275,000 cattle and the dumping of all the carcasses.
The so-called "purchase-for-destruction" program began here on Jan. 10 as part of measures to prop up the price after the bottom fell out of the international cattle trade late last year.
World markets for cattle dried up after so-called mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy, was found to be more widespread in the EU and there was panic about the health implications for humans.
Eating meat from cattle infected with mad cow disease can lead to the fatal human form of the brain-wasting disease, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD).
With a national herd of 7.5 million cattle, the export market is crucial for farmers.
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The price-support mechanism, involving 18 meat plants throughout the county, culled cattle aged over 30 months and was criticized as being wasteful of perfectly good beef.
Almost 50 percent of all purchases throughout the EU under the program have been in Ireland and Brussels are paying us about £450 million to subside 70 percent of the cost.
With Ireland’s world markets closed down and a plummeting demand for beef on EU markets, the Department of Agriculture says the slaughter program has underpinned cattle prices at a "significantly" higher rate.
"Prices for young bulls in most member states have fallen on average by over 20 percent since the BSE crisis of last autumn, whereas steer prices in Ireland have remained relatively stable over the same period."
As a result of the culling, however, the country has been left with a mountain of waste. It was a condition of the program that meat from the animals could not be sold for human consumption.
The carcasses were rendered into meat and bone meal and this waste has piled up in stores around the country because there is no incinerator to dispose of it.
The purchase-for-destruction will be replaced beginning this week by a "special purchase scheme," which will provide further price support — but only for cows and heifers; steers are excluded.
Minister Joe Walsh has secured concessions from Brussels that will allow an additional 310,000 tons of beef to be sold into intervention this year to try to minimize problems of surplus.
No decision has been made so far about whether the meat from the new program will be destroyed or stored to be given free to charities for humanitarian food aid. Any giveaway scheme would have to be sanctioned by Brussels.
"We would obviously like to see our meat consumed and going to market rather than having it destroyed," a spokesman said.
To offset another price crisis when the so-called "back-end" cattle trade begins — about 500,000 animals come on the market in September and October — diplomatic efforts are being intensified to try to have the vital Egyptian and other Middle Eastern markets reopened for Irish beef exports.
The closure of the Egypt to Irish beef was a major body blow as it is the country’s biggest market, taking about 150,000 tons a year worth about £200 million.
The department says a senior veterinary delegation from Egypt is due to visit the country. Earlier this year, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern made personal contact with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, to try to have trade resumed.