EU to extend beef restrictions

A ban would spell the end of the sale of t-bone steak

European agriculture ministers have agreed to support a total ban on the sale of beef products containing any part of the spinal cord.

The ban, if adopted, spells the end of the sale of popular cuts of meet such as t-bone and rib-eye steaks which are already heavily regulated.

The crisis on the beef market goes further than one might think. The latest market indications are alarming

EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler

The agreement came after intense debate in Brussels about how to reassure consumers that beef products are free of mad cow disease.

Earlier, EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler warned ministers that the crisis over mad-cow disease was in danger of straining the EU's budget to breaking point.

Spinal cord is supposed to be taken out of meat from cattle aged over 12 months, as there is a risk it may carry the prion proteins thought to spread BSE.

Alarming

Scientists years ago established a link between bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) and variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD), a brain-wasting disease in humans.

Speaking at the meeting of ministers on Monday, Mr Fischler said the state of Europe's beef market was alarming, and much worse than previously forecast.

He said beef consumption inside the EU had dropped 27%, causing huge difficulties in disposing of thousands of tonnes of unwanted meat.

Europe's beef market is alarming, according to Franz Fischler

"We really are at the very limit, if not beyond, in terms of what we can fund with the EU budget," he said.

"With all the will in the world, and fully recognising the dire straits farmers are in at the moment, we have zero room for manoeuvre."

Gloom

The EU Commission had hoped beef sales would drop by no more than 10% over a full year, but Mr Fischler said it now realised that sales were unlikely to rise in the near future.

He told his colleagues that continuing to provide farmers with a guaranteed beef price in a depressed market could cost at least 3 billion euros ($2.8bn), triple what was forecast in the current EU budget.

Mr Fischler urged member states to take advantage of the so-called purchase-for-destruction scheme whereby farmers are paid to destroy older cattle.

The alternative, he said, was to put unwanted beef into publicly-funded cold storage at massive cost.

Beef sales have halved in Germany, sparking farmer protests

"If we do this, farm expenditures would simply explode, which would lead to cuts in other agriculture sectors."

Safety tightened

Nowhere is the current panic over potentially infected beef being felt more keenly than in Germany.

Sales there have dropped by half, and the government has lowered the age for testing cattle for BSE to 24 months after a younger cow tested positive.

Some ministers at Monday's meeting - which was called to discuss ways both to curb the over production and to counter consumer panic - suggested the rest of the EU should follow suit.

But a majority agreed that keeping the test age at 30 months was still sufficient - even though some cases of BSE have been found in younger animals.