Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 February 2022
458. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which imports of meat or dairy products have changed in the past five years to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7338/22]
View answer459. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which imports of beef, lamb, dairy or pig meat have increased or decreased into Ireland or via the European Union into Ireland over the past five years; the countries from which such imports originated; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7339/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 458 and 459 together.
Over the period 2016 to 2020 the volume of imports of beef, dairy produce and sheep meat have increased while the volume of pig meat imports has decreased.
The volume of beef imported increased from 29,500 tonnes in 2016 to 30,000tonnes in 2020, an increase of 2%. This compares to 525,000 tonnes of beef Ireland exported in 2020. Imports of beef were valued at €130 million in 2020 while exports of beef were valued at €2,335 million.
The volume of dairy produce imports increased from 804,000 tonnes in 2016 to 997 thousand tonnes in 2020, an increase of 24%. In 2020, Ireland exported 1,714,000 tonnes of dairy produce. Imports of dairy produce cost €1,064 million while exports were almost five times higher at €5,109 million.
The volume of sheep meat imported in 2020 was 6,600 tonnes, up from 3,8000 tonnes in 2016 an increase of 74%. The value of the sheepmeat imports in 2020 was €37 million, about 10% of the value of sheepmeat exports at €356 million, while 64,000 tonnes of sheepmeat were exported.
Imports of pigmeat decreased between 2016 and 2020 from 99,000 tonnes to 86,000 tonnes. In 2020 Ireland exported 276,000 tonnes of pigmeat valued at €893 million compared to a value of €323 million on imports.
The full year preliminary data for the year 2021 will not be available from the Central Statistics Office until 15th February 2022. Data for the period January to November 2021 indicates that in the 11 month period of 2021 imports of beef increased by 17% in volume, dairy produce imports decreased by 13%, pigmeat imports decreased by 4% and sheepmeat imports increased in volume by 2% compared to the same 11 month period in 2020.
Attached is an excel file which includes a breakdown of beef, dairy produce, pigmeat and sheepmeat imports for the period 2016 to 2020 and the period January to November 2020 and January to November 2021 by value and volume by country.
