14 October 2011

2 minute read

Europe

This was the upbeat message that the Agriculture Minister, Jim Paice, gave an audience of exporters and other key figures from the meat industry at the AHDB Red Tractor dinner at Anuga on Monday night.

Speaking at the EBLEX and BPEX event at the Cologne Alter Wartesaal, the Defra Minister praised the work of the UK Export Certification Partnership (UKECP), of which EBLEX is a member.

“We’ve seen our beef exports rise by 40 per cent this year, partly underpinned by the excellent work of the UKECP,” he said.

“That partnership has opened almost 30 markets to UK beef in less than two years. This demonstrates that we have largely put the BSE crisis behind us and have probably become the world’s experts in how to deal with it.”

He then went on to talk about his desire to help the meat sector grasp the global opportunities that are available to it.

“Recently the prime minister visited Russia and he personally put UK beef and lamb high on the agenda, so much of the responsibility for opening up that market will now fall to industry to meet those Russian requirements,” he said.

“If there are issues you think the Government can help with then talk to us. If there are problems accessing markets then tell us about it and if it’s at all possible for us to do something about it then we will.”

As well as hosting the high profile Red Tractor dinner, EBLEX also had a busy two-storey stand in the meat hall, which acted as a hospitality facility for exporters to meet with representatives of the global industry and was well attended throughout the show.