A new deal which will help Irish farmers cope with the ending of the special purchase-for-destruction deal, which has kept beef prices at an artificial 90p a lb high for the last five months, was negotiated in Luxembourg last night, writes Sean MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent.
Farm ministers agreed a package which will increase the tonnage of beef allowed into intervention to increase from 350,000 tonnes to 500,000 tonnes.
Irish interests had been worried that the low level of intervention purchase would have depressed the market.
The European beef markets have been in crisis since last November since the BSE crisis, which sent beef consumption plummeting to an unprecedented low.
The intervention system is designed to buy surplus beef off the European market to create a real demand, but in recent years, the EU has been opposed to the system.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman said early today that the agreement would help farmers to adjust to the new situation when the 90p a lb purchase for destruction scheme will end in three weeks.