Food producers must target non-European markets more aggressively if Ireland is to maintain its position as a food exporter in the next century, according to the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Walsh.

Speaking in Cairo yesterday during a three-day trade visit to the Middle East that also took him to the Jordanian capital, Amman, Mr Walsh said the completion of Agenda 2000 and Common Agricultural Policy reform meant the parameters for development within the EU were now in place until 2007.

"The real challenge for the industry now is to get the maximum return from the best markets worldwide," he said.

The Minister said Ireland had performed well during the past decade but that food producers must get into world markets and build up contacts if they were to escape an over-dependency on intervention and institutional support.

"There is no way in which we should lead the Irish economy into the next century based on these artificial props," he said.

Mr Walsh visited the Irish stand run by An Bord Bia at the Food Expo, Egypt's annual food and agriculture fair, and met some of Egypt's biggest beef importers.

Earlier in the day, the Minister held talks with Egypt's agriculture and trade ministers.

Egypt is Ireland's biggest market for beef, importing 110,000 tons every year - more than two-thirds of the country's total beef imports.

Irish beef exporters complain that although sales have increased in recent years, laborious bureaucratic requirements make Egypt a difficult market in which to trade.

For their part, the Egyptians are eager to modify their huge trade imbalance with Ireland.

Egypt imported produce worth £97 million (€123.2 million) from Ireland in 1997, but exported only £5 million worth of goods to Ireland in the same year.

Mr Walsh expressed confidence that Ireland's position in the Egyptian market was secure despite strong competition from other EU member-states.

But he admitted there was no sign that Egypt was prepared to lift the total ban on imports of live cattle from Ireland that was imposed in the wake of the BSE scandal.

An Bord Bia's Mr Michael Duffy described Ireland's presence at the Cairo food fair as a crucial element in a long-term strategy to expand the market for Irish food in the Middle East.