Minister says farmers, processors, export bodies can’t agree on labels

A GROUP set up by the Government could not get agreement between the farming organisations, the processors and the marketing organisations on making a clear recommendation regarding country of origin food labelling.

Food Minister Noel Treacy revealed this in the Dail, when replying to a debate on the bill to merge Bord Bia and Bord Glas that included a wide ranging contribution by Deputy Ned O’Keeffe.

“Until an agreement can be secured, the advice available to us is that it may be detrimental to Irish marketing if we insist on that position. We have established a sub-group of the main group to try to draft a conclusive recommendation, so we can hang a single flag for Ireland on all products leaving this country for sale on global markets,” he said.