Agri-food sector ‘must innovate’

THE growth of multinational retail chains are putting increasing pressure on the Irish food processing sector to be competitive, Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan warned yesterday.

She told the Agri Vision 2015 Stakeholders Forum at the Royal Hospital in Kilmainham, Dublin, that the main supermarkets have a large and increasing share of the Irish and European retail sector.

This is increasing the competition between these stores and as a result there is a cost squeezing of food processors.