Farmers deliver the goods
An advisory group featuring Kerry’s Hugh Friel, Dawn Meats’ Dan Browne, and Glanbia’s John Moloney only asks that the Government put in place the long-term leasing and partnerships which farmers here need, in order to catch up with the larger acreages and milk quotas of their counterparts in competing EU countries.
Farmers have proved they can deliver the goods.
According to the group chaired by Kerry Group Chief Executive Officer Mr Friel, Ireland is already internationally recognised as a leading food producing country, a source of high-quality base ingredients from a ‘green’, unspoiled countryside
They say our best food companies have out-performed other native Irish industry sectors, with a number of them global leaders in niche or specialist markets.
They don’t deny that the Irish agri-food and drink sector now faces fundamental change, largely due to CAP reform and WTO negotiations.
But there’s not much that anyone can do about the outcomes of these international negotiations, and the advisory group are confident that when the sector settles down, farmers will play their role in making Ireland an internationally recognised food country by 2015 - if they are only given the tools for the job.
And the No 1 tool on their list is the combination of long-term land leasing and farm partnerships, so that Irish farmers can achieve the degree of scale required to be competitive in Europe.
Food safety will be vitally important on farms, but that is already largely in place.
The advisory group indicates that milk production may have to be tweaked in order to widen the dairy product range - not a big challenge for our dairy farmers.
Decoupling is in place too, and is welcomed by the group because it should boost farm incomes and encourage farmers to improve the quality of their production.
Whatever about the “'Ahead of the Curve, Ireland’s Place in the Global Economy” report which has been presented to Minister Harvey, and Hugh Friel’s group’s input into it, the group’s visualisation and confidence should be taken on board by farmers.
They look forward to more of our food companies playing a role in European markets, enterprise and academia working together in research and innovation; and the food sector offering attractive career prospects, attracting the highest calibre of management and staff.
They see this being pulled off by a single food industry development agency with clear objectives and aggressive national targets, helping to put in place ‘Food Ireland’, a strong brand for high-quality Irish food, internationally renowned.
Once Irish competition law is modelled on the kind of legislation now in place in the UK, Denmark and the Netherlands, our agri-food enterprise base will consolidate effectively, they predict.
But the supply chain starts with farmers and it can all only come true if farmers are enabled by the Government to reach a competitive scale of operation.
