Ireland could be world agri-food trading hub

The appalling revelations about the behaviour of global banks in manipulating interest rates such as Libor expose the frailties of existing financial systems worldwide. They may also provide an opportunity for Ireland.

In this column some time ago, I mentioned the idea of establishing an exchange in Ireland that could handle financial transactions in the agri-food industry.

This activity is currently dominated by those global banks that sit at the centre of a variety of scandals and it begs the question as to why these banks are given so much sway in financial matters of great importance to the agri-food sector.