End of scrapie ban cheers UK visitors to ANUGA Food Fair
End of scrapie ban cheers UK visitors to ANUGA Food Fair
By Robert Davies
SHEEP exporters had their spirits raised at the ANUGA Food Fair in Cologne this week with the settlement of the row with Italy over scrapie.
More good news came with the announcement of a big boost in overseas pigmeat sales, and surveys by Scottish beef exporters and British Meat, which indicated that many customers were ready to take beef again as soon as the export ban is lifted.
The "scrapie free" certification restrictions imposed by Italy had threatened to halt lamb shipments during the critical pre-Christmas period. But authorities agreed to accept a declaration that lambs are under one year old, and have had their spleens removed.
Within hours, orders were coming in and, despite the continued strength of sterling, the first loads of carcasses will begin moving this weekend. Alan Horine, export director of Edward Hamer International, said 1200 lightweight lambs would be sent from the companys Powys abattoir.
"Demand is good but margins are tight," he said. "We hope to build up to a load a day by Dec 15."
He and other traders admitted it was proving hard to recover the 14% fall in lamb exports last year, described by David Croston, MLCs export director, as "a pretty good result in the circumstances". "Domestic demand lifted farm-gate prices by 20%, the value of the £ rose steeply, and the label British was not welcome," he said.
Despite this, sheepmeat shipments to Germany were 23% up in the first half of 1997 at 4223t, worth £11.3m. There was a 26% rise in processed product exports, but the biggest growth was 32% extra British pigmeat. The 30,000t taken by Germany were part of a 38% total rise in overseas sales. Between January and June sales totalled 85,150t worth £14.7m. *