Ireland came a step closer last night to resuming the trade in live cattle to Egypt following a new agreement in Cairo between the Minister for Agriculture and the Egyptian authorities. In a separate development, the Department of Agriculture rejected reports in a French newspaper that banned British beef had been routed through the Republic.
An Irish delegation to Cairo, headed by the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh, secured permission to submit a written proposal for a trial shipment of Irish cattle to Egypt.
The breakthrough came after a series of discussions yesterday with the Egyptian ministers for agriculture and supplies, and the chief veterinary officer.
The live export trade with Egypt was worth £150 million a year before the authorities decided to ban live imports from Ireland last year. Ireland has exported 30,000 tonnes of frozen beef to Egypt so far this year.
A spokesman for the Department said that while last night's development was positive, he did not want to understate the difficulty involved in what were "very intensive negotiations".
Earlier in the day the French newspaper, Le Journal de Dimanche, had claimed in a report about the illegal export of British beef that some of the beef had been routed through the Republic of Ireland.
A Department spokesman said that intensive investigations carried out for the European Commission had found no evidence of British beef being rerouted through the Republic.
However, the spokesman acknowledged that a small quantity of British beef had arrived in Europe bearing fraudulent Irish veterinary stamps. British beef has been under an international embargo since March 1996 because of fears that it could be contaminated with BSE.
