Lack of producers cuts hopes of British beef export revival

British beef exports will never regain their former high levels because of the huge loss of UK production capacity, the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX) has warned.

And exports of prime beef cuts to some European Union markets were also likely to suffer from competition from high-quality exports from Australia and New Zealand, according to soundings on the Continent.

EBLEX said there was no chance of returning to the export levels of 1995 because so many producers had either ceased production or gone bust and there was no longer the production capacity at home. "You can't sell what you haven't got," it added.

The warnings came as British beef exports have started to pick up following the ending of BSE restrictions. EBLEX has been conducting an extensive promotional campaign on the Continent and the main customers for the first English prime beef exports were Italy, the Benelux countries and Spain, said EBLEX, with cow beef customers mainly in the Netherlands and France.

Last month EBLEX targeted the French market, with an event in Paris to pair up beef exporters and French importers. It said that several export contracts were signed as a result.

However, although one of France's biggest former importers of British beef, Ovimpex, had resumed importing British beef at the beginning of May, it was also expecting to start importing beef from New Zealand and Australia to cope with acute shortages within the EU.

Prior to export restrictions being imposed on British beef exports in 1996 because of BSE, Britain exported 274,000t of fresh and frozen beef, valued at £520M. Britain's biggest customers were France, which took 79,700t, followed by Italy, the Irish Republic, South Africa and The Netherlands.

The UK's Meat & Livestock Commission forecast that beef exports just from England, in the first year after restrictions, would reach 30,000t, worth £75M.

It expected France, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium and Spain to be the main markets.

l The British Meat Processors Association (BMPA) has criticised the National Beef Association (NBA) for demanding that retailers raise their prices, to help suppliers. "It is not for the NBA to say how much they want for cattle - it's a matter for the market forces," said Peter Scott of the BMPA.