EU farm chief aims to cut production, says IFA

THE IFA claimed yesterday that the real agenda in EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler’s CAP review plan is to reduce the level of production of beef, sheep meat and cereals in anticipation of future budgets, enlargement and WTO pressures.

John Dillon, IFA's president, speaking at the Kerrygold Dublin Horse Show, said it is important to realise that if Irish agriculture is wound down which is the objective of the "decoupling" proposal there are serious knock-on implications for Ireland's rural economy.

IFA's analysis is that the CAP review proposals would reduce the volume of output in the sectors affected by over 20%, equivalent to 355m annually, and the income loss in the total agri-food sector would be close to 300m annually.