Beefed up imports welcomed across UAE

Dubai: French beef imports will soon be joining newly approved Canadian and British boneless beef cuts at supermarkets across the UAE, say officials.

The French beef sector announced yesterday that the UAE Ministry of Environment and Water has approved beef-import certificates into the country lifting a ban on French beef since the BSE scare in late 2000.

At the time, media reported there were 153 cases of mad cow disease in France in 2000 which led to countries such as the UAE to ban importation for fear of human consumption of diseased beef.

Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as mad cow disease, can be passed to humans who can be seriously harmed through degenerative effects of the central nervous system.

Eager to buy

A new clean bill of health for French beef, however, led to negotiations between the UAE and France to reopen beef trade imports, officials said.

"The French beef meat sector will enter the UAE market by meeting with importers, chefs at major hotels and restaurants, and retailers. Importers and leading chefs established in the UAE are eager to buy French beef meat, which they see as a hallmark of quality," said Christelle Labernède, head of Agribusiness at Ubifrance Dubai, in a statement released yesterday.

"The UAE are great consumers of meat as a result of the growth of tourism there and of the high income per-capita. The country [UAE] consumes 18 times more meat per capita than the worldwide average, and depends on imports for 80 per cent of its cattle meat needs. Meat consumption is expected to increase by 28 per cent from 2011 to 2015, when it should reach 439,000 tonnes," she said.