Growing consumption boosts dairy farming

IRISH dairy farmers can look to the future with optimism, Irish Dairy Board chief executive Noel Coakley told the World Dairy Summit.

Growing consumption of dairy products, particularly in the emerging economies of China and India, has rapidly changed the world market for dairy products.

He suggested that the maintenance of EU milk quota restrictions during a time of unprecedented milk shortages would not serve the best long-term interests of European dairy farmers.

The normal economic laws of supply and demand should be allowed freedom to operate, thus spreading the burden of adjustment more widely for producers, processors and consumers alike.

“Given the general acceptance that there will not be political agreement for the continuation of milk quotas after 2015, the ‘soft landing’ approach proposed by Commissioner Fischer Boel would seem to make sense.

“This was widely expected to take the form of an annual increase in quotas of about 2% or 3% from 2009. However, there are now indications that quotas may be relaxed sooner,” he said.

President Mary McAleese, who officially opened the summit, said agri-food exports exceeded €8 billion in Ireland last year with dairy the strongest performing sector, representing a quarter of total export sales.

“The balance sheet contribution is as clear as it is considerable but it is far from the whole story because the impact of this sector on maintaining the viability of rural communities is inestimable,” she said.

President McAleese, who revealed that her breakfast each day includes milk, cheese and real butter, said the dairy sector’s ability to manage change — and indeed to drive it — has been at the root of its success over the years, as shown by the pervasion of technology and innovation from farms through transportation and industrial plants.

“It has outrun all its challenges and no doubt will keep on doing so even in the face of the known and unknown future challenges, including trade liberalisation, that are coming down the line,” she said.