Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon is keen to get Irish beef back into the Chinese market. Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal in Japan last week, he said that his Department continues to engage with Chinese officials on market access.

Irish beef has been suspended from the market since October 2024 after a case of atypical BSE was found in a 15-year-old cow. “It’s unfortunate that China has that requirement that stops it,” he said, adding that an atypical BSE case does not change Ireland’s negligible risk status.

“But again it’s an example; you adhere to the conditions that any host country put on and we have fulfilled all of our epidemiological reports and given everything back to the Chinese.

“It is very much their decision, we’d be very keen to get market access back again. “We’ve engaged with all levels of diplomacy with the Chinese and I’ll be travelling to China later this year as well on a trade mission and continuing to try and regain market access,” he said.

He added that it is frustrating for Irish food companies, who have invested a lot of money in being in markets such as China, when access ceases for a year or two.