Changes will put hundreds of jobs at risk, warns meat processing industry

THE meat processing industry warned last night that the CAP reform proposals would put hundreds of jobs at risk and result in export losses to the economy of €500 million a year.

It said the proposals, particularly the decoupling of premia payments, would have a devastating impact on farming and on the processing sector.

Irish Meat Association chief executive John Smith said it is difficult to reconcile claims that producer prices will increase as a result of decoupling with offers being made by the EU to reduce both import tariffs and export subsidies.

The proposals put forward by the EU to reduce import tariffs will allow lower-priced product coming from non-EU countries to have increased access to the EU markets, making it difficult for Irish producers to receive higher prices, he said.

Calling on the Government to strongly reject the proposals, he said the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) analysis on the impact of decoupling shows that the proposals would have a far more negative impact in Ireland than in other EU member states.

Other independent analysts have concluded that the impact of the proposals on Irish beef and lamb production would be even greater than that forecast in the FAPRI analysis.

Cattle output could fall by up to 30% or 600,000 head per year, equivalent to the throughput of ten meat factories employing almost 2,000 people. National sheep output could fall by 500,000 head per year, putting a further 300 jobs at risk, Mr Smith said.

He added that the volume and quality of the cattle and sheep produced in Ireland would suffer if these proposals are implemented. The reduction in agricultural output would quickly translate into job losses in the Irish beef and lamb industries and export losses of €500m per year.

As commercial farmers scale back their activities the progress which Ireland has made in building up a high quality, consumer-orientated food processing industry would be quickly undermined, he said.

Mr Smith said Minister Joe Walsh has the full support of the meat processing industry in Ireland when he insists decoupling is bad for Ireland and that the existing support arrangements, as negotiated in the Agenda 2000 agreement, must remain in place at least until 2006.