We must take steps to protect food industry

In the midst of considerable chaos, fear and uncertainty over the past six years, one industry has stood out like a beacon of light for the economy — agri-food.

Last year exports of food and beverages hit a record level of almost €10bn, equivalent to just over 11.4% of total merchandise exports. It accounts for 7.1% of gross value added in the economy and 8.6% of total employment.

The great thing about the industry is that as well as making an immense contribution to the national economy, it has a broad regional spread and is the lifeblood of rural economies. A journey on many rural roads at the moment will testify to the neglect of central and local government. In the area of rural Waterford from which I hail, telephone services were recently down for almost two weeks — could you imagine the calls in to Joe Duffy’s show if a similar thing happened in Dublin or some other urban area?

The great thing rural Ireland has going for it is that it is home to what is becoming our most important industry and one which offers enormous potential.

We have known for some time that in order to feed to world’s growing population over the coming decades food production will have to increase significantly.

This issue was highlighted even more dramatically this week with the publication of the latest report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The report contained many stark and scary findings, but the one that stood out for me was the impact climate change is having and would continue to have on global food production.

It went as far as to suggest ‘high temperatures and humidity would compromise normal human activities, including growing food or working outdoors in some areas for parts of the year’.

Food security is highlighted as a major issue for the global community, and thankfully in this country, notwithstanding the fact climate change is having an impact on farming activity, we are in a relatively good place to meet our own future food requirements and those of external markets.

Clearly farming and the broader agri-food sector are of vital importance to the national economy and will make a much more important contribution in to the future. In this context, it is essential we do whatever is necessary to protect and promote the industry.

Thankfully, there is a growing realisation amongst Irish people of how important having a strong domestic food industry is and of the importance of quality food.

Last week, the farming and food awareness body, Agri Aware published the findings of an IPSOS MRBI consumer survey showing a strong level of appreciation and support for the agri-food sector. Almost nine out of 10 surveyed believe that the Government should introduce legislation to ensure that the relationship between the large monopolistic retailers and food producers is a fair one.

This follows on from the vegetable price war that was instigated before Christmas, when vegetables were virtually given away by some retailers. The National Consumer Agency heralded this as being unambiguously positive at the time, but clearly this a short-sighted view suggesting that price is a more important consideration that the quality and security of the food.

The survey shows that consumers recognise the importance of food quality and the need to protect our food industry, which is very much the poor relation in its interaction with the large, retail multiples.

Hopefully, the bill published by Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton this week will give food producers more power in the lopsided relationship with retailers. We should be in no doubt about the importance of food security in the current environment, and we should do whatever it takes to protect it.