Pork sector builds new markets

Ray Ryan hears how Ireland’s pigmeat industry has had to work hard to overcome the challenges created by Russia’s embargo on EU imports.

Understandably the future of the Irish pig industry did not top the agenda when Russian president Vladimir Putin, German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president François Hollande met in the Kremlin the other day in a bid to avoid a wider war in Ukraine.

Yet, those involved in the third largest farming sector in Ireland have a direct interest in the efforts to bring lasting peace to Ukraine because Russia has banned agri food imports including pork from the European Union in retaliation for sanctions imposed on it by Brussels over the crisis.