Farming and meat industry groups have welcomed news that European vets voted unanimously to lift the final restrictions on British meat exports to the EU, but they warned it will take a long time to recover lost export markets.
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Chief veterinary officers from all 15 Member States of the EU moved more quickly than was expected and voted unanimously to lift the export bans, which were imposed last February when Britain’s devastating outbreak of foot-and-mouth began.
The 15 officials expressed their desire to get trade moving by the spring of this year, but meat industry groups in the UK have been more reserved in looking to the future.
“We will have to rebuild a trade that has been totally destroyed,” a spokesman for the Meat and Livestock Commission is quoted as saying in the Financial Times.
In 2000 UK farmers exported more than £200m (US$290m) worth of sheep and pig meat, although this figure is negligible as the industry has still not recovered from the effects of BSE.
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