24 June 2011

The UK beef and sheep sector will continue to see strong export growth for the foreseeable future, as economic forces and access to new markets create significant opportunities for the industry.

This was the clear message from EBLEX head of export services, Jean-Pierre Garnier, speaking at the seventh annual EBLEX Export Conference yesterday.

“We have every reason to be optimistic, however there’s still a lot of work to be done, particularly in terms of developing new third country markets so we are able to increase fifth quarter exports,” he said.

“We already export a third of the lamb we produce, and the likelihood is this figure will continue to increase. We have also turned a real corner in terms of beef exports, and aim to increase exports to 20 per cent of production by the end of 2012.

“The global lamb supply situation is extremely tight, and there are clear indications that supply is tightening in the beef market. We are in a good position to respond to this, and these opportunities send a clear signal to the market and bring renewed optimism to the future of the beef and lamb sector in this country.”

Other speakers at the event in Warwickshire included EBLEX sector director Nick Allen, head of trade development Peter Hardwick, Rémi Fourrier, of AHDB France, and Pim Haasdijk, of Green Seed, in The Netherlands.

The EBLEX Export Conference comes at the end of a three-day Beef Extravaganza, where 60 beef buyers and meat industry journalists from 14 European Union countries visited England and were shown every stage of the beef supply chain.