How British farmers were left ‘staring into the abyss’ after the foot-and-mouth export ban

A ban on meat, livestock and milk had catastrophic consequences for the UK’s £600m export industry, as Michael McCarthy, Stephen Castle and Nigel Morris reported in 2001

(Rex Features)

British exports of meat, livestock and milk were banned by the government and the European Union yesterday as the first outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease for 20 years plunged the farming industry into yet another crisis.

The blanket prohibition, similar in scale to the BSE export ban, could have catastrophic consequences for British farmers, who export nearly £600m worth of beef, lamb and pork annually, both alive and as meat.

The ban, which took effect immediately and will be reviewed at the end of the month by the European Commission’s standing veterinary committee, led the president of the National Farmers’ Union, Ben Gill, to declare: “It is like staring into the abyss. On top of all the problems we have had to surmount in the last few years, the impact is unthinkable.”