Confidence against the odds

AGAINST the odds, Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has succeeded in building confidence throughout the Irish food industry.

He has taken the Food Harvest 2020 plan to increase farm output by 33% and food exports by 42%, and built up Irish self-belief that these ambitious targets can be achieved in a debt-laden country which has to pay back up to €7 billion per year to our bailout lenders.

Like the coach of an underdog team, Coveney has awakened the fighting spirit in the industry — no mean achievement, whatever the eventual outcome.