Organic Ireland’s chance to bloom

SO the pigs are heading back to slaughter and the latest in a long line of Irish food scares is over. For the time being at least.

Might this not be a good time then to examine our food export business as a whole before the next cattle, sheep, chicken or pig crisis breaks?

The debacle that has raged over the last week could be viewed as the perfect storm for Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith to overhaul and rebrand Ireland as an organic food island.

A roadmap which aims to have exclusively organic produce leaving our shores within the next 10 years or less should be considered immediately by the Department of Health.

Such an ambitious plan would give Ireland Inc a brand that would be unmatched across the globe.

In many quarters, we are still perceived as being a clean, green country and this is the perfect launchpad for an organic food export industry that, in retrospect, could be seen as having been born out of the pigmeat scare in 2008.

Here at home the establishment and proper promotion of organic restaurants would give the country a unique selling point among good food lovers all over the world. The tourism industry would no doubt appreciate this much-needed shot in the arm.

If the Department of Agriculture is hesitant in examining this option, then it’s up to Pádraig Walsh and the IFA to take on the responsibility and bypass Government as much as possible in order to find strong markets for their potentially unmatchable organic food exports. With every crisis comes opportunity. The pigmeat shambles could be used as the perfect opening for renovating our now scandal-ridden food export industry.

Kieran Sullivan

Georgestown

Kilmacthomas

Co Waterford