Irish beef producers were warned yesterday they would be "shooting themselves in the foot" if they attempted to restrict food imports by demanding country-of-origin labelling.
The comment from an IBEC official followed the publication of the first annual report of the Consumers Liaison Panel on Monday.
Mr Ciaran Fitzgerald, sectors director of IBEC, the employers' confederation, said the solution to meeting consumer information in a manner that facilitated rather than inhibited trade was the introduction of an EU-wide beef label linked to quality standards.
Mr Fitzgerald, who represents the food and drinks industries, warned that what was patently not going to solve the problem were moves to enforce restrictions currently imposed in the beef sector on all food products sold on the Irish market.
"Much of the current comment with regard to origin of food imports, while couched in terms of quality and hygiene, is geared towards restricting imports into the Irish market," he said.
"This protectionist approach is in danger of becoming one of the great 'own goals' of our time because of the knock-on effects of country-of-origin labelling in the markets in which Irish food and drink is sold," he said.
"Ireland is the largest net exporter of food in the EU. Nine out of 10 beef animals produced in this country are exported, as is 80 per cent of our milk and milk products.
"Indeed, based on average per capita consumption levels we produce enough beef in Ireland for a population of 33 million people," he said.
Given that the current population is 3.8 million it is clear we need access to other markets for our industry to survive, and he said those markets were worth almost €6 billion.
The break up of the EU beef market through the abuse of country-of-origin labelling in several member-states had done major damage to the Irish beef industry, he said.
Under single market rules it is normally an offence for any member-state to promote domestic product in preference to product from another EU country.
After the BSE crisis, however, the EU Commission decided to introduce country-of-origin labelling as a measure to restore consumer confidence in beef.
Unfortunately, many of the schemes introduced in other member-states have effectively been hijacked into promoting domestic product in preference to imports, irrespective of quality standards.
Mr Fitzgerald warned that those who insisted on going this same route would be shooting themselves in the foot, and what were need were internationally-benchmarked quality standards.
The Labour Party spokeswoman on food and agriculture, Ms Mary Upton, said the commitments from the Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, to provide adequate labelling on food products simply did not go far enough.
She called for legislation to make it compulsory to have the country of origin of foodstuffs labelled clearly on the products.
"Consumers demand and deserve that the country of origin should be included on labels on food products. The Minister's campaign to get EU backing for EU and non-EU labelling is a smokescreen and not what consumers are rightly demanding.
"It is time for Minister Walsh to stop pussyfooting, and legislate for proper labelling of food products."