Why we are failing to feed Europe
Beef imports, we have been told, are wreaking havoc with Irish efforts to maintain a hold on domestic and foreign markets. This is true.
The farm organisations appear paralysed. The sounds of wailing and gnashing of teeth fill the press.
This problem we have every year is down to the simple fact that, as a nation, we don't have any marketing strategy for holding markets once we get in.
The promotion of beef is no longer an option. Bord Bia needs to evolve into a proper marketing/branding company. It is a malaise from the old days of easy EU money that has led Bord Bia to believe it has no responsibility other than to do the best it can. Its best isn't good enough.
It was very easy to 'promote' beef into any country if you had a bag full of export refunds going with it.
In the real world, post-decoupling, someone is going to have to explain to me, after all the money that was spent on promotion, why Ireland still can't retain market share properly.
When will the penny drop? We need proper market research, proper consumer analysis, proper food science and a marketing strategy that makes Irish food both recognisable and desirable to the consumer.
Tap water in this country, where it rains every other day, is of a good quality, yet bottled water is a multimillion-euro business. The customer is buying an idea, not necessarily a product. It is that type of science and marketing that needs to be applied to the beef trade.
Irish farmers and farm organisations have watched motionless as the volumes of imported food have risen. As farmers, through our own inaction, we have allowed foreign foodstuffs gain acceptance with the Irish public to such a degree that the only factor in the purchase of food is price.
This is our fault, and the fault of our leaders. While we have been talking the issue of food imports to death, the South Americans in particular have been getting on with the job of feeding Europe.
Our only response to date not yet implemented is labelling, which won't solve the problem. But it will further help the consumer to target cheaper food by country of origin. Remember in real markets such as the UK, it is brand recognition, not country of origin, that sells product.
It will not be easy for a minister for agriculture to question the status of imported food if native producers don't agitate. Likewise at the WTO.
Should farmers agitate it would make quarantining of foreign beef on the grounds of suspected hormones and flawed traceability an acceptable political tool. The message it would send across Europe, I believe, would be very powerful.
Defence of farming values, traditions and economy begins at home. A small thing could tip the balance back in favour of European taxpayers, consumers and farmers at WTO.
I do not envy Mary Coughlan's job of trying to deliver a result for Ireland at WTO. Without political agitation on food and farm economy issues at home, she may very well be asked, "who do you represent and why are you here?"
Martin Coughlan
Coolroe
Mothel
Carrick-on-Suir
Co Waterford.
