After ten years of poor returns, beef farmers hope the re-opening of the export market tomorrow, will be their light at the end of a very long tunnel. Rural Affairs Reporter Sarah Probert investigates...
Angry campaigners banging on the sides of cattle trucks was the lasting impression of the export trade before it was halted abruptly ten years ago.
The onslaught of BSE stopped thousands of young calves from being shipped across the Channel for the veal trade almost overnight.
While protesters welcomed the stoppages, many farmers were left struggling to break even with what followed.
Shipping live calves was only a tiny part of the export market. Hundreds of farmers and abattoirs had also heavily relied on European sales of carcasses.
As the ban was implemented, along with it came the food scare that beef was no longer acceptable on the dinner table, leaving farmers unable to sell their stock. And when confidence eventually returned several years later, supermarkets capitalised on the farmers' inability to export and had a monopoly over prices.
Tomorrow will see the start of a steady return to what farmers hope will be a prosperous beef industry, as exports resume.
* The National Farmers' Union estimates its members has lost out on trade worth £675 million a year since the beef ban was implemented * The lifting means that live animals born after August 1, 1996, beef and beef products made from cattle slaughtered after 15 June 2005 will be able to be exported * The European Commission eased the original ban on August 1, 1999 to allow exports of boneless British beef products from animals aged between six and 30 months to recommence. But, on the advice of its scientific committee, the export of live cattle remained banned * The US still has a ban on British beef products, which was imposed in 1997 * BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy), otherwise known as mad cow disease, has mainly affected cattle in the UK, where millions of animals had to be destroyed in the 1990s * More than 183,000 cases have been confirmed in the UK to date, Defra said, with the annual total peaking at more than 37,000 clinical cases in 1992 * BSE has been linked to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD), a disease that causes paralysis and death in humans * Although the EU ban was originally put in place to protect food safety, the export of live veal calves prompted mass protests at ports in the 1990s * One such protest led to the death of protester Jill Phipps in 1995 outside Coventry airport where calves were loaded onto flights for the Netherlands * The animal charity RSPCA said it was opposed to the resumption of live veal calf exports, as the animals suffered during lengthy journeys |
Adam Quinney, of Sambourne, near Redditch, Worcestershire, is one farmer hoping to benefit.
The 43-year-old third generation farmer, who restocked after his suckler herd was destroyed in the 2001 foot-and-mouth crisis, said he hopes profit will return to his business.
He estimates farmers could make an extra £70 per animal, as the European market will leave supermarkets no choice but to raise prices if they are to compete.
Mr Quinney, who rears Hereford cattle for Waitrose supermarket and also buys dairy calves, which he grows on for meat, said: "Since 1996 the beef prices in Britain have completely been controlled by the retailers.
"We haven't had the opportunity to export carcasses and different parts of carcasses, which is in demand in Europe. Beef production is falling in Europe and demand is increasing and we haven't been able to tap into that until now.
"We have been breaking even for ten years and now we may see a profit. Before the export market closed, we were averaging £2.30 a kilo, we took a price cut to £1.70 kilo in the years after that.
"I think this is really positive and the future of UK farming is in a much better place. What has been so frustrating these last ten years with BSE, foot-and-mouth and now the fiasco with the Single Payment Scheme, is that our industry has stopped moving forward and doing what the public wants - UK farming, producing food for local people and embracing environmental schemes. But when the industry is handled so badly by Government, each year is wasted."
While the resumption of the export market is welcomed by farmers, animal campaigners are already voicing concern about the return of live exports.
Today, actress Joanna Lumley and Dover MP Gwyn Prosser are calling on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for last minute action to save British calves from being exported.
She is presenting a post-card to Defra on behalf of Compassion in World Farm-ing (CIWF), claiming the calves will endure immense suffering on long journeys by land and sea.
Philip Lymbery, CIWF chief executive, said: "We are calling on DEFRA to change the fate of thousands of calves doomed for export and suffering.
"This means actively encouraging farmers to rear male dairy calves in the UK where conditions for calves are better, and securing welfare standards on farms in the rest of the EU that are equal to them or better."
Mr Quinney also believes more veal calves should be bred and slaughtered in Britain, to help boost the UK farming industry by providing extra work for abattoirs.
