26 August 2010

2 minute read

Europe

Reacting to current difficulties in the domestic beef sector, EBLEX has diverted an additional £100,000 to facilitating generic export certificates which will allow exporters to open up new markets.

It means nine additional non‐EU export markets are available with immediate effect, most of them in Africa. Previously, there were only six non‐EU export markets available to producers of beef in England. “Beef exports are a vital part of helping producers and operators in the UK maximise returns by making alternative markets available where there are demands for certain parts of a carcase, helping carcase balance, or where they can find better prices,” said John Cross, EBLEX chairman.

“For some time we have been working to enable more generic export certificates to be used for certain markets. We took the decision to place greater priority and additional resources into opening new markets for our producers, over and above the trade development activity we already undertake.

“As part of this push, in the last week nine new non‐EU markets have become available.”

Until recently, following on from the end of the Date‐based Export Scheme in 2006 which was set up in the wake of the BSE crisis, the number of export markets has remained limited. The industry’s UK Export Certification Partnership (UKECP) helped Defra prioritise potential export markets where there was a demand for British beef, which has included the provision of industry resources.

EBLEX has helped ensure that generic export certificates for some countries are more easily available, helping to open the door to exporters.

“An export health certificate is needed before we can export to a certain country. Sometimes it is straight forward and other times not so,” said Peter Hardwick, EBLEX head of trade development.

“We have helped develop more generic certificates and divert funding to driving the process to build export links with these nine countries. Some of these new markets are not huge, but they are very important to the English beef industry.

“We have responded to a very real need for a shot in the arm to the domestic beef market and hope this will have a beneficial effect on prices for our producers.

“Meanwhile, our extensive work on non‐EU export certification – which has an allocation of more than a fifth of the total EBLEX marketing budget – continues to seek out new opportunities for our beef and sheep meat.”