IFA president’s priorities include rights charter and equity of food supply chain
In his inaugural address to yesterday’s 59th IFA annual general meeting in Dublin, Mr Downey also vowed to defend farmers’ interests against any damaging trade deals at EU level, and seek new measures in the review of tax reliefs to deal with extreme income volatility, and encourage farm investment and land mobility.
“My message to Government, processors and retailers is: farmers must be properly and fairly rewarded for the job they do in producing high-quality food. Prices must reflect the cost of production and deliver a fair margin to reward hard work and investment,” said Mr Downey. “Farmers are being squeezed by high input costs. Since 2005, the cost of fertiliser is up by 62% and energy by 36%. Some of these increases are the result of over-concentration of market power in certain sectors. The EU must take steps to tackle the international price cartels operating in the fertiliser and energy sectors.”
Mr Downey also told those attending yesterday’s meeting that the IFA would continue to defend farmers’ interests in relation to the new Rural Development Programme, and CAP resources for schemes like the Disadvantaged Areas Scheme, an agri-environment scheme for 50,000 farmers and farm investment across all sectors.
The president also said he was determined to change the approach to farm inspections, which has led to fear and stress in families.
On trade deals, Mr Downey said farmers reject the way the European Commission is using agriculture as its main bargaining chip in bilateral trade negotiations, accepting the importation of food products which are not bound by the regulations faced by European farmers.
He said any deal with the USA on the same basis as the recent Canadian trade deal would have a devastating impact on our livestock sector and cannot be allowed.
Mr Downey announced the establishment of a farm taxation project team to defend the interests of farmers in the upcoming review of tax reliefs announced by the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan in the last budget.
He said the IFA has three priorities: to maintain existing reliefs; to secure new incentives to drive land mobility and investment; and to examine how the taxation system can better accommodate the extreme volatility in farm incomes.
