Farm subsidies harm poor countries

ACCORDING to Pat O’Rourke of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (Irish Examiner, August 19), “export refunds are more important to Ireland than any other EU country. A third of our dairy exports and one-fifth of our beef exports require export subsidies.”

How sad. Export subsidies directly damage farmers in developing countries by reducing the price they can get for their output. Farmers in west Africa, for example, have had to leave the land because they could not compete with subsidised beef exports from the EU.

Because of the damage they do to poor countries, EU export subsidies have been universally condemned by development organisations, international institutions, developing countries and very many independent experts. In relying so much on export subsidies Irish agriculture is doing direct damage to poor farmers in poor countries.