Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 20 Feb 2001

Vol. 530 No. 6

Written Answers. - Meat Imports.

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

92 Mr. Durkan asked the Taoiseach the extent to which sheep meat or sheep meat products have been imported in each of the years from 1998 to date; if these imports were from European Union or non-European Union countries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4405/01]

The Taoiseach

The information requested by the Deputy is given below for the years 1998, 1999 and for the period January-September 2000. September 2000 is the latest month for which information is available.

Imports of sheep meat and sheep meat products.

European Union	1998			1999			Jan-Sep 2000
	£000	Tonnes	£000	Tonnes	£000	Tonnes
Great Britain	1,762	942	2,081	957	1,495	833
Northern Ireland	109	35	45	15	60	19
France	70	25	0	0	356	161
Netherlands	81	22	34	10	3	1
Denmark	42	19	68	31	118	12
Italy	3	0	8	3	0	0
Spain	6	2	0	0	0	0
Total	2,073	1,045	2,236	1,016	2,032	1,026

Non-European Union	£000	Tonnes	£000	Tonnes	£000	Tonnes
Australia	79	6	26	9	26	8
New Zealand	1,100	605	668	454	534	263
Other	5	4	28	12	20	18
Total	1,184	615	722	475	580	289
Overall Total	3,257	1,660	2,958	1,491	2,612	1,315

Note: The "other" category includes the remaining countries not shown in the tables and unclassified trade. Approximately 3% of overall trade is unclassified by country. The unclassified trade consists of intra-EU estimates.

Bernard J. Durkan

Ceist:

93 Mr. Durkan asked the Taoiseach the number of European Union and non-European Union countries from which meat or meat products have been imported in each of the years from 1998 to date. [4406/01]

The Taoiseach

The information requested by the Deputy is given in the following tabular statement together with value and tonnage for all EU countries and for the main non-EU countries. The data relate to years 1998, 1999 and for the period January-September 2000. September 2000 is the latest month for which information is available.

Number of Import Locations

	1998	1999	Jan-Sep 2000
Number of EU countries	11	12	12
Number of non-EU countries	26	19	18

Imports of meat and meat products

	1998			1999			Jan-Sep 2000
	£000	Tonnes	£000	Tonnes	£000	Tonnes
European Union
Great Britain	66,335	35,528	75,789	37,335	60,484	28,046
Northern Ireland	35,238	16,924	36,295	19,183	24,284	11,283
France	11,328	6,384	10,053	4,441	10,637	3,883
Belgium*	4,492	1,310	4,837	1,760	8,868	3,277
Netherlands	23,898	9,984	31,101	12,374	33,486	11,666
Germany	6,213	2,817	7,113	2,829	6,378	2,173
Italy	2,948	1,370	5,218	2,531	3,340	1,319
Denmark	13,225	5,888	12,626	5,864	10,554	3,935
Greece	223	190	0	0	90	51
Portugal	11	13	2	1	69	20
Spain	276	72	1,221	506	1,030	355
Sweden	1,298	534	41	19	297	103
Finland	0	0	2	1	0	0
Austria	0	0	1	1	414	382
Total	165,485	81,014	184,299	86,845	159,931	66,493
Non-European Union
Brazil	992	377	2,405	1,231	3,611	1,756
Uruguay	436	285	355	237	450	231
Thailand	96	46	189	71	675	230
Other	4,153	2,033	2,145	1,138	2,741	934
Total	5,677	2,741	5,094	2,677	7,477	3,151
Overall Total	171,162	83,755	189,393	89,522	167,408	69,644

*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. Approximately 3% of overall trade is unclassified by country. The unclassified trade consists of intra-EU estimates.