Egypt's ambassador to Ireland has asked authorities in Cairo to treat Irish beef imports as a special case, following Tuesday's announcement that the country's ban on EU beef imports will continue for a further four months, the Irish Times reported.
Ashraf Rashed was quoted by the daily as saying that he had been telling the authorities for some time that control measures in Ireland had been in place earlier and were different from those in many EU countries.
"We are trying to set in place arrangements for a delegation to come and see things on the ground," he told the paper.
"We have been to the department and different authorities, making the facts clear. I am urging them and also the Department (of Agriculture) is urging them to look at the situation on its own," he said.
Egypt has announced that its ban on Irish beef imports will remain in force until at least October.
The Egyptian government's ban covers all beef from the European Union.
For its part, the Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has called on the their country's agriculture minister to launch a major public relations campaign to win back markets that Ireland has lost.
Egypt is the biggest non-EU market for Irish beef, worth £200 million (254 million euros) annually and accounting for around 60 percent of exports to non-EU countries.
Michael Duffy, Bord Bia's chief executive, was quoted by the Irish daily as saying that “Egypt is a priority. It's a very important market, particularly towards the back-end of the year.” – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
