The Minister for Agriculture, Food, and the Marine, Michael Creed, has welcomed the progress made on live exports and milk products to Algeria arising from the technical meetings between his Department and their counterparts in Algeria.
Breifne O’Reilly led a technical delegation in Algiers on 30 April, comprising of senior officials from the Department who were accompanied by members of Bord Bia.
Productive Discussions
The Minister said that the two parties had ‘very productive’ meetings, with discussions ranging across live export of animals, milk products, meat, and existing health certificates for Irish live exports.
Algerian authorities have agreed, in principle, to move from a joint breeding, slaughter, and fattening certificate to 3 separate certificates.
In addition, there is an agreement for the maximum age of breeding animals to be raised from 36 to 42 months.
“I welcome the progress made in Algiers, which follows from a meeting of my Department with their counterparts,” Minister Creed said.
“This is a perfect example of Team Ireland working together to increase the global footprint of the Irish agri-food sector and I am grateful to Ambassador O’Reilly and to Bord Bia for their assistance in this matter,” he added.
While improvements to certificates were made in relation to milk products, there is a need for more bilateral exchanges and discussions on live shipments.
“On their return, my technical experts will move quickly to oversee the changes to the health certificates for live exports so that they can be forwarded to our Algerian colleagues for their imprimatur prior to the commencement of the revised trade conditions,” Creed explained.
“This augers well for the ongoing trade between Ireland and Algeria and we are very grateful to the Algerian authorities for their engagement on these important issues,” he concluded.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
