Livestock: Transport
(asked on 11th March 2019) - View Source
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many animals have been transported to mainland Europe for slaughter in each of the last five years.
Answered by
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Trade Control and Expert System (TRACEs) publishes data on the number of exports for slaughter. TRACEs has only published data from 2014-2016; data for 2017 and 2018 has not yet been published.
The data can be viewed here: https://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/live_animals_en
The total volume of trade in live exports for slaughter to the EU from the UK from 2014 to 2016 was:
| 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
Cattle | 3,982 | 7,673 | 10,464 |
Sheep | 361,769 | 321,343 | 385,099 |
Pigs | 10,396 | 12,772 | 8,916 |
Total | 378,161 | 343,803 | 406,495 |
The majority of animals are exported from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland.