HC Deb 27 February 2004 vol 418 cc580-1W
Mr. Hoyle

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much beef was imported in each of the last five years, broken down by country of origin. [155333]

Alun Michael

The attached table shows the level of beef meat and meat products imported into the UK for the years 1998–2002 broken down by the country of despatch.

The data is subject to a degree of statistical error. The overall level of errors is low, but these errors have a much greater proportional effect on countries with small values or volumes of trade. Therefore, care is needed when interpreting the data.

UK imports of beef meat/products, 1998–2002
Thousand
Country 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Irish Republic 76 97 113 135 160
Brazil 43 59 66 74 72
Netherlands 12 14 13 17 20
Argentina 11 10 10 6 24
Uruguay 13 10 9 9 15
Botswana 6 6 6 11 6
Australia 10 8 6 6 5
Germany 5 3 5 12 9
Namibia 6 7 6 9 7
France 4 8 6 7 7
Zimbabwe 7 7 6 5 0
Denmark 1 3 3 3 4
Belgium/Luxembourg 1 2 2 3 5
Italy 1 1 2 5 4
New Zealand 6 2 1 1 0
Others 6 4 5 4 4
Grand Total 208 240 257 306 343
source:
HM Customs and Excise
Data prepared by Statistics (Commodities and Food) Consultancy
Trade & IT, ESD, DEFRA