Government aims to boost beef sales
2 December 1999
Government aims to boost beef sales
By FWi staff
THE government has waived £7 million of meat hygiene inspection charges, and agreed to set up a new taskforce aimed at boosting global sales of British beef.
The waiving of hygiene charges is in recognition of problems faced by abattoirs because of additional costs for BSE controls, said agriculture minister Nick Brown.
Inspection charges, which had been expected to rise 20%, will remain at current levels until the end of the financial year. Future increases will be inflation-linked.
In addition, a group of experts will be set up in an attempt to convince potential overseas customers about the safety of British beef.
British beef exports were worth about £600m each year before the BSE crisis hit the industry in March 1996. They are now said to be worth about £12m a year.
The promotional drive follows the lifting of the ban on beef on the bone and a “beef summit” between Tony Blair and industry leaders on Wednesday (01 December).
A Downing Street spokesman said: “A senior embassy official in each of the target countries will be fully briefed and co-ordinate all efforts to open up that market.”
The group, which will include experts from MAFF and the Meat and Livestock Commission, will be led by junior agriculture minister Joyce Quin.
Experts will organise visits to priority countries to explain fully British anti-BSE controls. The visits will be supplemented by promotions at British embassies.
Officially, lifting the two-year-old bone-in ban was unrelated to boosting exports because the existing export scheme is only for boneless beef.
But both the government and the industry believe the resumption of bone-in sales should end overseas criticism that Britain lacks confidence in its own beef.
Export managers at the Meat and Livestock Commission have already described the lifting of the bone-in ban as “useful” in kick-starting exports.
NFU president Ben Gill said the next aim should be to get the date-based scheme amended so bone-in beef could also be exported.
Bone-in beef used to form a major part of the UKs export trade, especially to the value-added Italian market.