Midland Farmer - Spring 2024

2 MIDLAND FARMER
Spring 2024
Reactors,
restrictions
and costs
all rise in
2023
Virtually all key figures
under the
bovine TB Eradication
Programme saw
increases in 2023,
with the number of
reactors and herd
restrictions seeing
notable increases on
2022.
The amount of money
spent by the state on the
programme also increased
– by about €17 million
– in the same period,
while the herd incidence
rate also went up, reaching
almost 5% by the close
of 2023.
New data released publicly
by the Department of
Agriculture, Food and the
Marine shows that, in the
12-month period from
January 1, 2023, to December
31, 2023, 28,868 TB test
reactions were detected in
cattle, compared to 23,337
in the same 12-month
period of 2022.
On the same time period
comparison, 2023 saw
5,078 herds locked up with
TB, compared to 4,492 in
2022.
The herd incidence rate
as of December 31 last
was 4.89%. This is the
highest herd incidence
rate at the close of a year
since before 2010 (the Central
Statistics Office does
not provide data from
before that year).
Food and live animal exports
worth over €14.5bn in 2023
The value of Irish food
and live animals exports
in 2023 stood at over €14.5
billion, according to the
Central Statistics Office
(CSO).
This marks a slight drop
of 1.2% when compared to
the 2022 figure of €14.76
billion.
The value of meat and
meat preparation exports
dropped from €4.8 billion
to €4.6 billion.
Exports of dairy products
and birds’ eggs were
worth just over €4 billion,
down from €4.3 billion in
the previous year.
The data shows that
value of cereal and cereal
preparation exports increased
from €705 million to
€769 million, while live
animal exports grew in
value from €605 million in
2022 to €782 million last
year.
Analysis by the national
statistical office also highlights
the key destinations
for food and live animal
exports from Ireland.
Last year, exports of food
and live animals to Britain
were worth €3.9 billion
(2022: €3.87 billion), while
for Northern Ireland such
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exports rose from €1.69 billion
to €1.75 billion.
Over €5.1 billion worth of
food and live animals was
exported to other EU countries
(down from €5.4 billion
in 2022), while the
exports to the US stood at
€774 million.
CHINA
China was the destination
for €566 million worth
of exports of food and live
animals in 2023 and there
was also more than €2.3
billion of similar exports
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to “the rest of world”
(2022: €2.5 billion).
IMPORTS
The CSO said that
imports of food and live
animals to Ireland
increased in value last
year to just over €10 billion
and must be completed by 31st December 2024
(2022: €9.5 billion).
There was a slight
increase in the value of
imports of meat and meat
preparations to €1.17 billion
while the value of
dairy products and birds’
eggs imports dropped by
€99 million to just over €1
billion.
Imports of cereal and
cereal preparation were
up slightly to €1.7 billion,
while imports of vegetables
and fruit rose by €237
million to €1.68 billion.
In 2023, imports of food
and live animals from
Britain rose in value from
€2.2 billion to €2.4 billion,
while for Northern Ireland
such imports dropped
in value by around €40
million to €1.3 billion.
Over €4.1 billion worth of
food and live animals was
exported to other EU countries
(up from €3.6 billion
in 2022), while the exports
to the US stood at €422 million.
Ireland imported food
and live animals worth
€118 million from China,
and such imports from
“the rest of world” were
valued at €1.57 billion.
Commenting on the
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Goods Exports and
Imports December 2023
report, Ciarán Counihan,
statistician in the CSO
international trade in
goods division, said:
“In 2023, Ireland’s
exports of goods were €197
billion, a decrease of more
than €11 billion when compared
with 2022. Exports
in 2023 were still more
than €30 billion higher
than in 2021.
“Imports of goods in 2023
were more than €139 billion,
€1.5 billion lower
than the 2022 level, but
almost €36 billion higher
than in 2021.
“The unadjusted exports
for December 2023 were
valued at €13.9 billion, a
decrease of €1.4 billion on
December 2022. Seasonally
adjusted exports were
€15.7 billion in December
2023.
“In December 2023, unadjusted
imports were valued
at almost €12 billion.
When seasonally adjusted,
imports of goods fell by
€1.7 billion when compared
with November
2023.”
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