Food Industry

Tuesday, 20 June 2023

Questions (470)

Jackie Cahill

Question:

470. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the tonnage of meat imported into Ireland to date in 2023, by month and meat product that is, beef, sheep and pig meat, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29099/23]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Regarding the volume of meat imported into the Irish market, I understand that the trade figures for 2022 and 2023 are currently subject to revision by the CSO and that amended datasets will be published later this week.

I will forward the requested data when available directly to the Deputy.

Of course Ireland is among the largest net exporter of meat in the world and the volume and value of exports is many times that of imports.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51:

The most recently published trade data from the CSO covers the first four months of the year from January to April 2023. Over this period, there were imports of 11,235 tonnes of beef, 2,798 tonnes of sheepmeat, and 24,613 tonnes of pigmeat into Ireland. This is in the context of exports of 153,846 tonnes of beef, 21,513 tonnes of sheepmeat and 83,235 tonnes of pigmeat over the same period. I have provided the requested breakdown of this data in tabular form below.

The volume of beef imports for the first quarter was revised down significantly following an error identified in the agristats by the CSO. There have also been changes to the methodology used to breakdown unallocated or unknown products in trade in goods statistics, as well as the method for allocating partner countries for estimated data.

	January		February		March		April
	Exports	Imports	Exports	Imports	Exports	Imports	Exports	Imports
	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes	Tonnes
Beef	37,171	2,847	38,041	2,973	44,197	2,685	34,436	2,730
Sheepmeat	5,151	651	4,683	870	6,661	832	5,018	444
Pigmeat	20,234	6,022	19,955	5,664	24,188	6,411	18,858	6,516

Note that CSO trade statistics may differ slightly from Bord Bia export data, in particular because CSO figures include non-edible agri-food products such as forestry and animal hides. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the data contained within, in view of the volume of statistical data collected as part of agri-food trade statistics, some errors in respect of individual products may occur. Where these anomalies are identified, the Department will liaise with the CSO to highlight and amend the information as required.