Warnings of Brexit Impact on UK's Beef Exports
UK - Environment secretary Elizabeth Truss has warned beef farming could be under threat if the UK left the EU, as ninety-three per cent of all Britain's beef exports went to the EU in 2015.
19 May 2016
1 minute read
Speaking ahead of her visit to the Devon County Show, Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss said: "Devon is home to more than a third of all the beef farms in the South West, and its farmers benefit from having the world’s largest single market of half a billion customers on their doorstep, buying 93 per cent of our beef exports.
"This European market is vital not just for Devon’s farmers, who are rearing top-quality beef cattle, but for the county’s huge food manufacturing sector, which creates even more local jobs. Leaving the EU is a leap in the dark which would put these jobs at risk and threaten the livelihoods of the region’s 60,000-plus agricultural workers.
"Farmers in Devon and across the UK, are safer, stronger and better off as part of a reformed EU."
EU member Ireland is the biggest consumer of British beef, with exports there worth £110m in 2015, followed by the Netherlands and France. By comparison, last year Britain's beef exports to non-EU countries were worth £23m.
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