Elephant in the room in Coveney’s 2025 strategy

There are no prizes for guessing what farmers will put in the responses invited from the industry by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, when he launched this week’s preparation of a national strategy for the agri-food sector up to 2025.

He said Ireland primarily competes on the international food market, and maintaining our competitive advantage, based on low cost, grass-based production, is paramount.

There was lots about competitiveness, but nothing about competition, even though competition, or lack of competition, at processor and retail level, is the elephant in the room, as far as farmers are concerned.