CYPRUS will resume importing British beef, probably in February, following the EU decision this week to lift its worldwide export ban on beef from Britain, experts from the Agriculture Ministry’s Veterinary Services Department said yesterday.
“We look forward to lifting this ban,” said Dr Pavlos Economides, Director of the Department of Veterinary Services.
“We will follow the EU regulations,” Dr George Pitzolis, the department’s chief veterinary officer, said, adding he also expected British beef to again be in Cyprus markets in February.
“We’ll wait until we get the new (EU) directives, and when we have them, we shall follow them,” Pitzolis said.
Asked why wait until February, Economides replied: “People do not rely on science,” the way they once did. “You tell them you are going to have beef from the UK, and they will be shocked. They are sensitive, and we have to take notice of what the consumer says,” and this will require their re- education.
EU farm ministers on Monday cleared British beef for export again. Under the EU scheme, the beef must meet strict criteria: it must be deboned, and come from cattle aged six to 30 months and born after August 1, 1996.
In March 1996, the European Union banned all exports of British beef after Britain’s government admitted a link between eating beef infected with bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, or “mad-cow disease”) and a new form of the human brain disorder Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (nvCJD).
Thirty people have already died from nvCJD, and no-one knows how many more victims there will be, given the long incubation period. Some say Britain is a time-bomb for an eventual epidemic of nvCJD.
More than 270,000 tonnes of British beef and veal were sold abroad in 1995, with Cyprus among the buyers. Since the EU ban was imposed, Ireland has shipped the vast bulk of all the beef Cyprus has imported, from 11 countries, government figures show.
Between January 1, 1997, and September 30, 1998, Ireland shipped 2,553 tons of beef to Cyprus. Italy was a distant second, exporting a mere 301 tons to the island, and New Zealand was third, with 148 tons.
The remainder of the 11 countries shipping beef to Cyprus during the period were: France (97 tons), Holland (65 tons), Greece (17 tons), Belgium (7 tons), Germany (0.5 tons), the United States (0.4 tons), and Denmark (0.1 ton).
Thirteen tons of British beef brought into Cyprus during the period in question went to the British Sovereign Bases, or to other British diplomatic personnel, Economides said.
Pitzolis said Cyprus has not bought any beef from northern Ireland, despite the lifting some five months ago of the EU ban on exporting northern Irish beef.
This was not due to any fears that the beef was BSE-laced, he said, but rather owed to the fact that Cypriot importers already had contracts for beef from other sources that they signed during the EU ban.
