EU to ease restrictions on Argentinian beef imports

The EU’s decision to allow beef imports from northern provinces of Argentina could increase competition for UK beef in key markets abroad, but is unlikely to impact the domestic market, say farming experts.  

Argentina’s agriculture minister Ricardo Buryaile announced recently that EU officials said a ban on beef imports from the country’s northern borders could end in the first half of this year.

The restrictions have been in place for 13 years following the outbreak of foot-and-mouth in the area.

The news comes only weeks after the Argentinian government revealed it was removing taxes on most agricultural exports – which will make its exports even cheaper.

See also: Latin-American deal could cost EU beef industry £9bn

John Royle, NFU chief livestock adviser said the main threat to producers was if Argentine beef hit the UK’s prime beef export trade with Germany and the Netherlands, which together accounted for 85% of Argentina’s trade with the EU.

But the impact on the UK’s domestic market would not be great, he said. AHDB research showed the UK takes negligible quantities of beef from Argentina.

Mr Royle said there might be some people in the UK food service sector who wanted to source more Argentinian beef, but retailers were unlikely to be interested because British consumers wanted to see Red Tractor beef on the shelves.

Argentinian imports ‘drop in ocean’ compared with Irish

If there was an increase in beef coming to the UK from Argentina it would be a “bit of a drop in the ocean” compared with imports from elsewhere, most notably from Ireland which imported 179,000t in 2014, he added.

Jean-Pierre Garnier, head of exports at AHDB, agreed he did not think the UK faced any great threat at the moment.

Figures collated by AHDB show Argentina had an annual export quota allocation for the EU of 30,000t slaughter weight (SWT) under the high quality beef (HQB) scheme.

Last year it filled 76% of that total, suggesting there is scope to increase its shipments into Europe.

The US Department of Agriculture has also predicted that exports from Argentina could rise by 20% during 2016 and Argentina’s national herd is expected to exceed 53 million head this year.

Free trade deal ahead

Negotiations are also still ongoing for a revised trade deal between some Latin American countries and the EU which it is feared could have a big impact on European and UK producers through cheap imports. 

The deal would mean creating freer trade between the EU and Mercosur, a block of countries including Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay.

EU farm leaders fear that it could result in the EU being flooded with cheap beef which would depress prices.