Food production - Sector can be a catalyst for growth

VERY few markets are as well supported by the certainties that surround food production and demand. Equally, very few countries are as well placed, experienced or as established in world class food production as Ireland.

This combination of circumstances will play a huge part in rebuilding our economy and, eventually, our self respect.

The farming and food sectors each account for nearly one-in-10 Irish jobs and there is no reason that this ratio should not increase considerably over the coming years. Already 65% of manufacturing exports by Irish-owned firms are in the food or drink sectors. With imagination and determination this hard-won figure can grow and maybe act as a welcome counter balance to our heavy dependence on foreign direct investment.

World population growth and the increased spending power of tens of millions of middle class workers in economies barely subsistent two generations ago means that the world needs to increase food production by 40% within two decades and by something approaching 70% by 2050. And, if other predictions are correct, much of this will have to be achieved with less oil, the pivotal force of modern, industrialised farming.

These are truly daunting figures in a world where hunger and malnutrition are still a daily reality for tens of millions of people.

Nevertheless, these population predictions are as big a challenge as face humanity but one that will have to be met and Ireland is well placed to play a role well beyond our size in confronting it.

For generations we have been the source of some of the best farm produce in the world and though we have not always understood that processing and marketing standards are almost as important as those used in the production of the food those issues have been

confronted by a range of commercial and government agencies.

A plethora of agencies, primarily An Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland, have led the way for Irish food companies. Without the support they offer many Irish firms would never get space in European or Asian supermarkets for their products.

There is an irony though. Just as we reach this point fewer and fewer young people are planning careers in farming. The risks, the long and often lonely hours and the year-to-year market fluctuations make a nine-to-five job, in a heated office, more attractive to many people born and raised on farms. There may be a need to imagine new ways of getting access to land for farming but, as the population predictions confirm, productive land cannot be left idle. The size of land holdings is an issue too and our visceral love of property ownership does not make consolidation as easy as it might be elsewhere.

In the depths of a hard winter, and as we come to terms with our economic reality, reasons for optimism are to be cherished. Ireland’s food sector, in its parts, has the potential to create the work and generate the revenues so badly needed today. Let us do all we can to realise its potential.