Progress has been made regarding access to the US market for Irish lamb, but Meat Industry Ireland (MII) has warned that action is necessary to address quota barriers to beef exports.
MII has expressed their concern about the disruption of Irish beef exports to the US, due to the import market being swamped by Brazilian beef.
With the return of Brazilian beef in the US market the import quota that importers of Irish beef use, which would normally fill up towards the end of each year was completely filled by early April this year. This affects the competitiveness of Irish beef entering the US market. Outside of the quota, Irish beef faces an import duty of 26.4%, which effectively blocks trade into a beef import market of over 1m tonnes.
The lamb import market in the US is over 160,000 tonnes and is currently dominated by imports from Australia and New Zealand. Last year, Ireland’s beef exports to the US were valued at €36m, but unless the import quota roadblock is resolved this will not be repeated in 2022.
Senior Director at MII, Cormac Healy, says, that “The progress on lamb exports is very welcome and provides an excellent opportunity to diversify and maximise export market options for Irish lamb. I hope to see high quality grass fed Irish lamb available to US consumers as quickly as possible, and I’m confident it can compete well in a growing market.”
MII is taking part in the week-long trade mission to the US and Mexico led Minister McConalogue TD and Minister of State, Martin Heydon TD.