Rogers calls on farming ministers to sort out labelling issues | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

Rogers calls on farming ministers to sort out labelling issues

South Down SDLP MLA Seán Rogers has called on the Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development in Stormont, as well as the Minister with responsibility for Agriculture, Food and Marine in the South to investigate and rectify the erroneous issue of beef labelling.

Speaking to Newry Times, Rogers said, “Following on from the Horsemeat scandal, a review took place of how carcasses are labelled. As a consequence, cattle imported from Southern Ireland to the North, finished in the North and slaughtered in the North are now labelled as “Nomads” as no labelling is available to classify their origins.

“This labelling issue is greatly impacting upon free trade among producers of store cattle in southern Ireland and feeders/finishers of these cattle in Northern Ireland.

“In relation to harvest time when there is a high volume of cattle being sold, it is important to highlight that these Northern Ireland finishers will be prohibited from buying store cattle and as a result leaving a depressed market.

“It is also leaves these extra cattle available to the Southern factories to manipulate beef prices later in the year, as they will have the opportunity to feed these cattle themselves.

Rogers added, “From January 2013 to date, there has been a huge drop in the number of imported cattle from the South to the North and these numbers will continue to tumble unless urgent action is taken to rectify the bureaucratic issue of labelling. I have made representations to both Ministers on this matter and I await their intervention.

“This farming cross border co-operation has been a long standing tradition and one which has been very successful due to the high calibre of produce involved. Farmers have endured so much hardship in recent times so it is vital that this issue is brought to a resolution sooner rather than later.”

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=31185

Posted by on May 2 2013. Filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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