THE Russian beef ban affecting exports from Tipperary, Cork and Monaghan will be lifted as soon as BSE levels there fall, according to the Russian official who negotiated the deal with the Minister for Agriculture.
The director of the Russian agriculture ministry's veterinary service, Mr Vyacheslav Avilov, has warned, however, that meat from other counties could be banned if levels of the disease rise there.
He also criticised Irish farming organisations, saying their protests over BSE were counter productive and only served to increase fears among Russian consumers.
Mr Avilov, who met the Minister for Agriculture, Mr Yates and the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, earlier this month, said a total ban on Irish beef exports had been averted by Mr Yates.
He was highly critical of farming organisations for saying the Government should have negotiated with Russia on a political rather that technical level. He accused some farmers in Ireland of illegally using bone meal feed for their cattle.
"The Irish agriculture ministry . . . did deal with the matter on a political level. There were meetings between the Department of Agriculture in Dublin and Russia's deputy prime minister responsible for agriculture, Mr Zaveryukha, on the subject. But this was referred back to the technical experts in our department." said Mr Avilov.
"You should remember that we have strict regulations here. We were the first country in the world to ban British beef, back in 1991, and when we saw what was effectively a doubling of the incidence of the spread of the disease in Ireland, this led to a great deal of concern not only among the agricultural experts but among the Russian population."
BSE in Ireland had received major publicity in Russia, he said. The lead story in the popular newspaper Moskovskaya Pravda of October 4th suggested Russia was crazy to import Irish beef. The newspaper's banner headline read: "Mad Beef for a Mad Country."
It was only because of good and longstanding relations with the Department of Agriculture in Dublin that Ireland had escaped a total ban, he said. Protests by Irish farmers - while perhaps serving a purpose in Ireland - were, according to Mr Avilov, counter productive in Russia. The more publicity this issue got in Ireland, the more it was picked up by the Russian press and the more the Russian public became worried about Irish beef, he said.
In spring the Russian agriculture ministry threatened Ireland with a total ban on imports and he produced an official document to this effect.
"We keep a close watch on the situation and we have data on BSE outbreaks throughout Ireland. In the whole island of Ireland, Mayo is the only county which is completely clean of BSE outbreaks. We would have been totally justified in imposing a complete ban," he said.
Ireland was not the only country upon which temporary regional restrictions had been imposed, Mr Avilov said. "In France we have stopped imports from five departments and in France the incidence of BSE is one tenth of that in Ireland. In my view your Minister for Agriculture has worked a miracle for your country," he said.
The Russian agriculture ministry compiled records of all Irish cattle and was convinced that illegal bone meal feed was being used. "The use of bone meal was banned in Ireland in 1990. We now discover that cows born in 1992 have developed BSE. The only logical explanation is that bone meal is being illegally used in your country."
The incidence of BSE had a characteristic pattern of rises followed by significant drops, he added. The rise had been particularly significant in counties Cork, Tipperary and Monaghan, and a corresponding fall could be expected which would allow beef from those counties to be imported to Russia.
The director of the Russian veterinary service warned that other counties could also be in danger of losing exports to Russia should the incidence of BSE rise.
