THE National Farmers' Union of Scotland's hill farming convener, John Scott, has welcomed the re-opening of the sheep export trade to France which was suspended in January under BSE controls imposed by the Ministry of Agriculture.
Talks between the Ministry and its French counterpart mean the French will import whole sheep carcasses and remove spinal cords themselves.
The trade in cull ewes, sold as mutton in France, has been worth more than #16.5m a year to the UK and its suspension earlier this year had closed down a valuable market for farmers.
''The re-commencement of exports is tremendously good news when the sheep industry as a whole has been going through a difficult spell,'' said Scott.
The announcement about the resumption of the export trade in ewes follows the setting of the advance ewe premium at 7.022 Ecu per ewe for heavy lamb
producers and 5.618 Ecu for light lamb producers.
This is equivalent to 30% of the full amount forecast for 1998 of 23.406 Ecu for heavy and 18.725 Ecu for light lamb producers. The ewe premium in Less Favoured Areas has also been set at 5.977 Ecu per ewe for heavy lamb
producers and 5.379 Ecu per ewe for light.
Legislation on the minimum use of premium rights has changed. From 1999 member states have the right to fix the minimum use of quota rights at up to 90%.
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