DUBLIN, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Consumption of pork has returned to "relatively normal" levels in Ireland after a recall of pork products due to dioxin contamination, but other countries remain reluctant to buy Irish pork, Irish officials said on Thursday.
The dioxin contamination in Ireland caused products to be pulled from shelves in more than 20 countries in December, though the European Union later said that eating average amounts of the contaminated meat caused minimal health risks.
Production and sale of pork approved as safe by Irish authorities restarted soon after the scare.
"The fact that sales of pork have recovered so quickly in the home market is encouraging and emphasises that consumers have rightly kept faith in Irish pork," said Johnny Brady, chairman of the agriculture committee of Ireland's houses of parliament.
"However, the decline in value of exports is worrying," Brady added in a statement after a hearing with food industry officials. "This is a vital outlet for Irish pork and any long-term reduction could have serious implications for the sector."
Irish pig meat exports were valued at about 368 million euros ($477.5 million) in 2007 with 129,000 tonnes exported to 40 markets worldwide, the statement said.
"There is still reluctance among some existing customers in Britain, Europe and Asia to buy Irish pig meat products following the recent contamination incident," it added.
($1=.7706 Euro) (Reporting by Andras Gergely; Editing by Christian Wiessner)