(29 Apr 1996) English/Nat
Cattle farmers in the U-K are calling on European Union agriculture ministers meeting in Luxembourg to lift the export ban on British beef.
Without it, they say, their business will be devastated.
But they're not optimistic that the two-day talks will go their way.
Farmer John Colegrave says many of his 140 beef cattle are ready to be sold - but thanks to the so-called 'mad cow' crisis, there's no market for them.
He now faces watching them grow too old to sell, while the European Union continues to debate the B-S-E issue.
At a meeting in Luxembourg U-K Agriculture Minister Douglas Hogg is asking his European counterparts to lift the export ban on beef and beef products imposed one month ago.
But here in Oxfordshire, farmers say even if a lifting of the ban is agreed, the damage has already been done.
SOUNDBITE
In theory we would be able to start exporting cattle or exporting meat to Europe and so prices would recover and we would get some of our market share back. I worry now that the crisis has been whipped up, especially on the continent, to a much greater degree than it has here. Consumer confidence in Europe seems to have gone much worse than it has in the U-K that whether there'd actually be an export market if the ban was lifted.
SUPER CAPTION John Colegrave, Beef Farmer
At the meeting, attended by all 15 E-U agriculture ministers, Douglas Hogg has been outlining plans to slaughter up to 42-thousand cattle.
The proposal involves tracing cattle with the disease back to their original herds, and slaughtering or quarantining cattle that came in contact with infected animals.
But farmers aren't hopeful he'll win his case.
SOUNDBITE
Politics have come into it now. I think the EC, European governments are seeing this as a method of protecting their own trade. The exercise has backfired on them and it actually upset their own trade in the process.
SUPER CAPTION John Colegrave, Beef Farmer
Ironically, in the U-K itself, the market has begun to pick up in the last two weeks, with customers starting to buy beef again.
But with the export market still in tatters, farmers are looking to the E-U to help them save their livelihoods.
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