Weanling Trade Barriers with Italy Removed
ITALY - The Ulster Farmers’ Union has welcomed the Agriculture Ministers announcement that that the difficulties being experienced by exporters of weanling cattle to Italy should now be resolved.Speaking after a meeting of the UFU Hill Farming Committee, UFU Deputy President Harry Sinclair said; “The weanling trade to Italy is a very important live market option for suckler producers. It brings competition to our market place and we are relieved that the barriers to this trade now seem to have been removed.
"We had raised this issue on numerous occasions with DARD and with representatives at the Northern Ireland Assembly. More recently we wrote to EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou calling for trade barriers to be removed. We are pleased that progress has now been made”.
The UFU highlighted that the strengthening Euro could also help to boost the trade. Harry Sinclair said; “The Euro is now at an all time high in value compared to Sterling, trading at around 90 UK pence. This will help make our stock an attractive option to buyers in Italy, where there is a demand for the type of high quality weanlings which we can supply from our suckler herds”.
TheCattleSite News Desk