Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 13 Dec 2000

Vol. 528 No. 2

Written Answers. - Meat Imports.

The Taoiseach

The latest month for which information is available is August 2000. The following tables show the type, value and volume of meat imported from the UK for the years 1985 to 1999 and for the eight month period, January to August 2000.

The information attached was provided in response to parliamentary questions on 8 and 15 November 2000, respectively. Imports are recorded by country of origin and it is not possible to determine from the trade statistics whether meat imported from the UK was produced from animals originating in the UK or elsewhere. where two or more countries are involved in the manufacture of a product, the country of origin is the country in which the last substantial process takes place.

Value of Meat Imports from UK

	Beef	Lamb	Pork	Poultry	Other	Total
Year	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
1985	9.8	0.1	21.9	10.2	10.8	52.8
1986	4.9	0.1	21.6	10.8	12.3	49.7
1987	14.1	0.1	16.8	11.0	13.5	55.5
1988	28.2	0.1	19.3	14.1	1.2	62.9
1989	42.3	0.1	25.7	12.4	1.0	81.5
1990	24.1	0.1	15.9	14.4	1.9	56.4
1991	28.4	0.1	15.2	24.0	2.3	70.0
1992	16.7	0.4	17.5	32.4	2.8	69.8
1993	19.3	0.1	13.3	23.3	2.1	58.2
1994	35.5	0.2	15.3	26,7	4.2	81.9
1995	40.3	0.6	19.3	31.1	4.3	95.6
1996	14.0	1.3	24.2	40.1	5.6	85.2
1997	16.6	1.6	24.4	45.6	5.9	94.1
1998	14.6	1.9	21.2	57.7	6.1	101.5
1999	8.4	2.1	23.0	69.6	7.0	110.1
Jan-Aug 2000	6.6	1.4	16.6	44.9	4.5	74.0

Volume of Meat Imports from UK

	Beef	Lamb	Pork	Poultry	Other	Total
Year	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes
1985	5,068	26	14,058	7,585	7,163	33,900
1986	2,742	15	15,523	8,438	7,730	34,448
1987	7,226	73	11,471	8,725	8,686	36,181
1988	14,044	69	13,512	8,778	834	37,237
1989	21,069	70	15,288	7,083	560	44,070
1990	12,177	28	10,236	7,781	891	31,113
1991	14,459	49	9,329	9,017	1,367	34,221
1992	8,559	177	11,965	12,327	2,167	35,195
1993	10,459	81	9,033	14,204	1,701	35,478
1994	19,433	96	11,453	18,471	2,658	52,111
1995	34,402	339	15,442	20,921	2,640	73,744
1996	8,502	836	16,964	19,864	3,511	49,677
1997	9,163	681	15,875	18,612	3,964	48,295
1998	7,265	977	16,499	24,655	3,055	52,451
1999	5,136	969	13,452	32,516	3,392	55,465
Jan-Aug 2000	3,507	727	8,871	19,204	1,998	34,307

Note:‘Other' includes goat meat, meat of horses, asses, mules or hinnies, meat and offal of rabbits, snails, sausages, animal liver, edible offal and meat extracts.

The Taoiseach

The latest month for which information is available is August 2000. The following tables show the type, value and volume of meat imported from France and Germany for the years 1995 to 1999 and for the eight month period January to August 2000.

Value of Meat Imports from France

	Beef	Lamb	Pork	Poultry	Other	Total
Year	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
1995	1.3	–	3.7	3.3	0.3	8.6
1996	1.3	–	4.6	3.9	0.2	10.0
1997	1.1	–	4.8	2.2	1.0	9.1
1998	1.0	0.1	6.4	3.3	0.6	11.4
1999	0.4	–	4.3	5.0	0.3	10.0
Jan-Aug 2000	0.6	0.3	5.0	2.9	0.8	9.6

Volume of Meat Imports from France

	Beef	Lamb	Pork	Poultry	Other	Total
Year	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes
1995	883	–	1,929	1,054	111	3,977
1996	598	–	1,843	1,703	92	4,236
1997	740	–	1,982	1,240	614	4,576
1998	937	25	3,467	1,735	220	6,384
1999	270	–	2,173	1,880	118	4,441
Jan-Aug 2000	276	125	1,963	918	227	3,509

Value of Meat Imports from Germany

	Beef	Lamb	Pork	Poultry	Other	Total
Year	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m	£m
1995	0.7	–	1.6	0.2	0.3	2.8
1996	0.2	–	2.8	0.3	0.4	3.7
1997	0.2	–	2.2	0.6	0.4	3.4
1998	0.2	–	4.7	0.8	0.5	6.2
1999	0.1	–	5.9	0.6	0.5	7.1
Jan-Aug 2000	0.1	–	4.5	0.8	0.3	5.7

Volume of Meat Imports from Germany

	Beef	Lamb	Pork	Poultry	Other	Total
Year	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes
1995	386	–	843	46	49	1,324
1996	135	–	1,535	121	65	1,856
1997	117	–	946	249	73	1,385
1998	75	–	2,363	288	91	2,817
1999	20	–	2,304	390	115	2,829
Jan-Aug 2000	27	–	1,539	294	72	1,932

Note:‘Other' includes goat meat, meat of horses, asses, mules or hinnies, meat and offal of rabbits, snails, sausages, animal liver, edible offal and meat extracts.

The Taoiseach

The latest month for which information is available is August 2000. The following tables show the value, volume and country of origin of poultry meat imports for the years 1995 to 1999 and for the eight month period January to August 2000.

Value of Poultry Meat Imports

Country	1995£m	1996£m	1997£m	1998£m	1999£m	Jan-Aug 2000£m
Great Britain	21.7	25.3	30.2	40.1	49.4	33.1
Netherlands	1.6	3.7	6.3	8.6	13.4	12.4
Northern Ireland	9.4	14.8	15.4	17.1	20.2	11.8
Benelux*	0.8	1.4	1.4	1.3	2.0	4.9
France	3.3	3.9	2.2	3.3	5.0	2.9
Denmark	1.8	3.1	3.5	4.2	4.9	2.8
Italy	1.5	1.0	0.9	2.3	4.6	2.1
Spain	0.3	0.6	0.1	0.2	0.9	0.9
Germany	0.2	0.3	0.6	0.8	0.6	0.8
Other	–	0.2	0.2	1.0	0.9	1.8
Total	40.6	54.3	60.8	78.9	101.9	73.5

Volume of Poultry Meat Imports

Country	1995Tonnes	1996Tonnes	1997Tonnes	1998Tonnes	1999Tonnes	Jan-Aug 2000Tonnes
Great Britain	13,165	10,840	11,806	17,431	21,421	14,237
Netherlands	911	1,367	2,092	3,070	5,109	4,192
Northern Ireland	7,756	9,024	6,806	7,224	11,100	4,967
Benelux*	233	337	372	353	784	1,990
France	1,054	1,703	1,240	1,735	1,880	918
Denmark	1,866	1,232	1,397	1,587	1,815	987
Italy	592	496	518	1,160	2,181	819
Spain	101	206	24	39	392	317
Germany	46	121	249	288	390	294
Other	29	54	51	297	385	613
Total	25,753	25,380	24,555	33,184	45,457	29,334

*As and from January 1999 Belgium and Luxembourg are accounted for separately.

Note:The ‘other' category includes the remaining countries not shown in the tables and unclassified trade.

Overall, approximately 3% of trade is unclassified by country. The unclassified trade consists of intra-EU estimates.