{"id":240918,"date":"2026-01-12T11:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T11:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240918\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T11:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T11:08:10","slug":"china-agrees-to-lift-ban-and-reopen-market-for-irish-beef-imports-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/240918\/","title":{"rendered":"China agrees to lift ban and reopen market for Irish beef imports \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">China has agreed to lift its ban on Irish beef, following the visit by Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Chinese authorities closed their huge market to Irish beef in September 2024 after an \u201catypical\u201d case of so-called mad cow disease was discovered in Ireland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">However, after recent lobbying by the Irish Government, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/politics\/2026\/01\/07\/china-wants-to-import-more-irish-food-and-a-stake-in-irish-wind-energy-taoiseach-says\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/politics\/2026\/01\/07\/china-wants-to-import-more-irish-food-and-a-stake-in-irish-wind-energy-taoiseach-says\/\">including during Mr Martin\u2019s visit last week <\/a>and a trade mission led by Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon in October, the Chinese government has now agreed to lift the ban.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The news was welcomed in a joint statement from Mr Martin and Mr Heydon on Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe confirmation today that the Chinese market will reopen for Irish beef is a very important and positive development in our bilateral agri-food trade with China,\u201d Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThis decision, which directly follows my positive engagements in Beijing with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in recent days, reflects the confidence of the Chinese authorities in the robustness, transparency, and effectiveness of Ireland\u2019s animal health, traceability, and food safety systems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThis reflects a culmination of intensive political, diplomatic and official engagement since the market was temporarily suspended in September 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Mr Heydon said that Ireland\u2019s beef production is \u201cunderpinned by comprehensive surveillance, strict regulatory oversight, and internationally recognised standards, ensuring high levels of food safety and consumer protection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe reopening of the Chinese market further underlines the strength of these systems and Ireland\u2019s long-standing commitment to safe, sustainable, and high-quality agri-food production,\u201d he said<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">He thanked \u201cthe Chinese officials who engage positively on an ongoing basis with our Beijing Embassy and with my department.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"China has agreed to lift its ban on Irish beef, following the visit by Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin last&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[114,42,6096,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-240918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-china","tag-headlines","tag-mercosur","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}