WASHINGTON: The US market could be worth $15m to the Irish sheepmeat industry, assuming that country’s TSE ban on EU exports be lifted later this year.
Better known as scrapie in Ireland, TSE is a fatal infectious disease in sheep and goats, related to BSE in cattle and CJD in humans. The US imposed the EU sheepmeat ban in 1995, but it is understood it will be lifted later this year.
“Thereafter it is about individual countries negotiating their own market access,” Declan Fennell, Bord Bia’s sheepmeat sector manager, told Agriland.ie.
“I believe we have a good chance to be first on-market, given that we have built a good track record in how we handled our re-entry into the beef market there. My sense is that we should certainly have a good head-start there.”
