March 8, 2006

EU agrees to end decade-long ban on UK beef exports

The EU has agreed to end a decade-old ban on beef exports from the UK after improved monitoring and controls reduced the incidence of mad-cow disease.

The European Commission had confirmed in 2004 that the number of cases per million in the UK herd had fallen below 200, putting the country out of the high risk category.

There were 161 cases in the UK last year compared with a peak of 37,280 cases in 1992.

The UK has recorded a total of 185,000 cases, of which more than 95 percent were detected before 2000.

The ban, imposed in March 1996, has cost British farmers GBP500 million (US$869 million) a year. British farmers are delighted with the prospect that they might soon be allowed to rebuild their traditional markets again.

The UK has about 10 million cattle, the third-largest herd in the EU, after France and Germany.

Some markets, including the US, the world's biggest beef importer, still remained closed.

France was the UK's biggest market before the 1996 ban, accounting for almost half of its exports to the rest of the EU.

Exports from the UK, which will involve only animals born after Aug. 1, 1996, are expected to start in six weeks, once the commission has formally approved the legislation.