Must ensure agrifood success will benefit everyone from farm to fork

The agriculture and food industry has a big contribution to make to the recovery and renewal of our economy. It has an equally big contribution to make to community well-being and the fabric of rural life.

The sector brings in €24bn to the economy. It’s responsible for almost 10% of exports and provides 7.7% of employment. When jobs in inputs, processing, and marketing are included, the agrifood sector accounts for almost 10% of employment.

Members of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) play a crucial role in these outputs, including the dairy processing co-operatives, and livestock marts, which have a combined turnover in the region of €14bn, with some 150,000 individual members employing 12,000 people in Ireland, and 24,000 people overseas.