IFA president’s priorities include rights charter and equity of food supply chain

Equity in the food supply chain and a new charter of rights to remove the fear surrounding inspections are two of the top priorities for incoming IFA president Eddie Downey.

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.”