Export ban to cost UK £10m a week

An export ban prompted by the foot and mouth outbreak will cost the British red meat industry around £10m (€14m) per week, it was estimated today.

That figure includes lost revenue from both live animal and red meat sales, according to the Meat and Livestock Commission (MLC).

It also includes the knock-on losses to related businesses such as abattoirs, packers, processors and transport firms.

MLC head of communications, Guy Attenborough, said the EU market accounted for around 90% of British red meat and live animal exports.

“The export ban will mean a loss of £10m (€14m) per week to UK red meat businesses,” he said.

“Getting exports restarted following the all-clear will be a number one priority of the MLC.”

Long-term movement and export restrictions could cost the British red meat industry “tens of millions of pounds”, according to National Farmers’ Union director of communications Anthony Gibson.

“The longer this goes on and the more cases we get, the greater the costs are going to be,” Mr Gibson said.

“We know from long and bitter experience that a ban on exports leads to very low prices.

“Further price cuts could be the last straw for an awful lot of people.”

Mr Gibson said an export ban effectively made UK red meat producers into “captive sellers” to the domestic market.

He appealed to retailers and abattoirs not to take advantage of the foot and mouth outbreak as a means of pushing down the prices they pay to UK producers.

“We hope movements of animals will resume in the next two to three days. If we get it right we want to be able to minimise the damage.

“If things go wrong and we do get further outbreaks and people in the meat trade move to exploit the situation, we could be looking at costs running into tens of millions of pounds,” he said.

The National Beef Association (NBA) fears a long-term export ban could cause the domestic price of British meat to plummet.

Kim Haywood, director of the NBA, which represents around 3,000 producers, said: “What we are concerned about is a complete and utter price crash when farmers desperately need to get as much money from the market as possible.”