IFA rally to highlight sugar fears

THE Irish Farmers Association will hold a big public rally in Mallow this coming Sunday afternoon to highlight the threat posed to the beet growing and sugar processing sectors in Ireland by proposed European Commission reforms.

There will be a march to Mallow Sugar Factory, where there will be speeches by IFA president John Dillon, the beet growers section chairman Jim O’Regan, and other key figures.

The rally will take place as negotiations on the reforms, which could prove devastating for the industry in Ireland and its sole processing plant in Mallow, are now coming to a head.

A meeting of the EU’s Council of Agricultural Ministers next week will be under intense pressure to agree a deal.

A blocking minority of 11 EU member states opposed to reforms has emerged but the Commission held firmly to its proposals at last month’s Council of Ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

The key elements of the proposals at present are a 39% price cut in the institutional price for sugar, a corresponding reduction in the minimum price for sugar beet and 60% compensation to farmers for the price cut.

Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan, the lead Irish negotiator, has already stated that while the need for reform is acknowledged, she considered the Commission’s proposals as currently framed to be unbalanced and unacceptable.

IFA president John Dillon said the Commission’s proposals are an attack on the Irish sugar industry and the country’s beet growers.