Irish people eat one million meals each week made of beef imported from outside the EU, the Irish Farmers' Association claimed yesterday.
Calling on the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, to publish the names and addresses of importers of non-EU beef, the farm organisation said such exports were seriously damaging the industry here.
Mr Derek Deane, chairman of the IFA's national livestock committee, said that in 2001, 8,800 tonnes of non-EU beef was imported into the State. This represented 13.4 per cent of the entire domestic market and was the equivalent of 52 million beef meals, or one million meals a week.
Mr Deane said the Minister should bring forward legislation calling for all non-EU meat to be labelled, in line with recommendations by the Food Labelling Group.
He said the labelling and the publication of the list of importers of non-EU meat would alert consumers to the facts on imported product and the need to ask for Irish beef in food outlets.
The information would help prevent restaurants, hotels and food service outlets from being what he termed "conned" into false purchases of imported meat.
The Irish Food Board, An Bord Bia, has established a scheme for Irish food outlets that guarantee that they are using Irish products.
The Féile Bia scheme has attracted a great deal of attention, and the number of outlets involved in it has grown to over 1,000, with most major hotels, restaurants and catering groups taking part.
An Bord Bia has said it would monitor the scheme to ensure that those using the logo were complying with the regulations. Irish consumers eat 66,000 tonnes of beef annually.
The non-EU beef mainly supplies the catering trade, which has been targeted by importers offering meat at around half the price of that produced in the EU.
Latin American countries account for most of the imported beef and they have been filling their export quotas to the EU with prime cuts. This trade has proven so successful that Brazil and Argentina have chosen to export an additional 40,000 tonnes above the quotas agreed in the world trade regulations by paying the full tariffs on the extra amounts.