The sudden rise in the number of live cattle being shipped out of Ireland was described yesterday as "dramatic" by the Department of Agriculture and Food.
A spokesman for the Department said that so far this year, 190,000 live animals had been exported compared to only 60,000 at this time last year.
The spokesman said that the growth in the trade had been fuelled by a tremendous jump in the number of mature animals being sent to Lebanon. He said that last year Lebanon took 10,000 animals and had taken 5,000 the year before but so far this year 40,000 mature cattle had been shipped there.
There was room for growth in this trade, the spokesman said, because the EU had taken out only 70 per cent of the export licences it was entitled to under the terms of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. "This means that there is scope for more expansion in the trade using EU export refunds," he said.
"There has also been a very strong trade in younger cattle and the price of calves has doubled since the beginning of the year because of the trade," he said.
"However, this has to be taken against the background of the growth in the size of the Irish herd, which has grown from seven to 7.8 million," he said. Because of this growth, the Department was strongly supporting the live trade to avoid a glut of animals coming on the market in the autumn.
Department officials yesterday inspected a cargo vessel for the roll-on, roll-off live trade with mainland Europe from Cork, he said. Also yesterday, Department officials met cattle exporters to reassure them that there would be no disruption to the trade because of the proposed new EU certification.
The traders had feared that they might have to carry out additional bovine TB and brucellosis testing of animals under the forthcoming regulations which specify a premovement test.
The regulations would mean that exporters would be expected to carry out the tests themselves on the animals they purchased or to hold them for 30 days before shipping them.
The Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, confirmed over the weekend that the existing EU health certification arrangements would continue to apply to the export trade.
He said the working of the proposed new certification was currently being examined by his Department and there would be continuing consultation with all those involved in the trade.