Agriculture & Food

Irish Minister of Agriculture Martin Hayden will lead a delegation to visit China next week, marking his first visit to China since 2019 on agricultural and food trade.

The Irish Observer reported on April 7th that the Irish Minister of Agriculture, Martin Heydon, will lead a delegation to visit China next week, marking his first visit to China on agricultural and food trade since 2019. The purpose of this visit is to promote Irish food and beverages such as dairy products, beef, pork, seafood, and spirits.

The visit itinerary starts from Hainan. Hayden will lead some Irish food and beverage companies with officials from the Irish Embassy in China and the Irish Food Authority to participate in the 2023 Hainan Consumer Goods Expo, and deliver a speech at the expo, emphasizing the trade opportunities between Ireland and China, with a focus on promoting high-quality and safe agricultural food in Ireland. He will also travel to Shanghai and, with the assistance of the Irish Food Authority, engage in a series of high-level contacts with Irish agricultural food companies and their Chinese clients.

Hayden stated that Ireland is proud of its world-renowned and high-quality food and beverage products, which have been favored by many Chinese consumers. The Chinese market provides exciting new opportunities for the Irish agricultural and food industry. For Ireland, as a major international exporter of high-quality, safe, and sustainable food, it is important to personally establish new connections with priority markets in Asia.

Hayden stated that China, with its growing middle class, is a key market. After experiencing turbulence in recent years, I look forward to face-to-face communication with major Irish exporters and their Chinese customers, and exploring opportunities for further developing long-term international trade partnerships with them. In particular, I look forward to contacting the Irish Food Authority and Irish exporters on their plans to reopen the Chinese beef market in early January.

According to CSO trade statistics, in 2022, China was Ireland's sixth largest international export destination for agricultural products, with a total export value of approximately 722 million euros. Dairy exports are the most important product category with an export value of 463 million euros, followed by pork exports with an export value of 125 million euros.

Regarding Hayden's reference to reopening the Chinese beef market, Irish state television reported on January 5 that China lifted the ban on the import of Irish beef from international trade. According to the report, after two and a half years of refusing to accept Irish beef due to concerns about mad cow disease, Chinese authorities lifted the ban and allowed Irish beef to resume exports to the world's most populous country. Irish Minister of Agriculture, Food, and Oceans, Charlie McConagall, welcomed China's lifting of the import ban on Irish beef, calling it a "vote of confidence in our beef industry".

According to reports, an atypical case of mad cow disease was discovered by the Irish Ministry of Agriculture's mad cow disease monitoring program. According to the health agreement on trade between China and Ireland, Ireland immediately suspended beef exports to China after discovering this issue. Since Ireland suspended beef exports to China in May 2020, negotiations with Chinese officials have been ongoing and have been completed recently. Ireland's beef exports to China began in 2018, and international trade exports had been growing strongly until the discovery of cases of mad cow disease. Before the suspension, Ireland's annual beef exports to China were worth nearly 100 million euros. (Transferred from: Economic and Commercial Department of the Embassy in Ireland)