THE NEED for a strategic plan to help the farming and agri-business sector get through the current crisis and begin the State’s economic recovery was one of the main points of agreement at a major conference attended by more than 700 delegates in the RDS in Dublin yesterday.
“Harnessing Farming, Food and the Green Economy” was the theme of the conference organised by the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), which was of the belief that the needs and potential of the industry were not addressed at the recent Farmleigh conference.
IFA president Pádraig Walshe told Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith, who attended the last session of the day, that the five chief executives of the companies who had taken part in the opening session employed 30,000 people and generated €15 billion worth of business.
One of those, John Moloney of Glanbia plc, told the opening session there was a good future in farming with growing world population and wealth, and the dairy sector could grow by 50 per cent when milk quotas were removed.
Kerry Group chief executive Stan McCarthy agreed there was a need for a long-term plan for the industry. There needed to be rationalisation and the industry was under-capitalised.
Owen Killian, chief executive of Aryzta, said agriculture had a bright future but that might seem hollow to farmers who currently had no income. All the indicators for the next 20 years augured well for the food production.
John Horgan, the managing director of Kepak, identified the recent collapse in the value of sterling relative to the euro as a major challenge facing the beef industry. This issue needed to be addressed if Irish exporters were to hold their share of the crucial British market.
The IFA president said its economist had estimated, given the proper support from Government, agriculture could increase exports by €2 billion and create 16,000 jobs. He refuted suggestions it was a “sunset industry”, claiming that it was a proven “world class” performer. The “smart” thing to do was to invest in the farming and agri-food industry.
Mr Smith said the Government was very aware of the problems facing farmers, and only last week he, with the Taoiseach, had met the IFA where problems had been discussed.
The Minister said he could give no guarantees there would be no cuts in the budget as Ministers still did not know their allocations, but he would argue strongly against cuts
He rejected suggestions of “scandalous waste” in over-inspection of farms and said these had been cut by 50 per cent in recent years. He also refused to say if the Government would seek the EU agriculture portfolio.
“We are aware the agriculture commissioner is in charge of 40 per cent of the commission budget and we attach the greatest importance to that,” he said.
Tom McCarthy and a team from the Irish Management Institute will co-ordinate the key messages from the conference into an action plan which the IFA will present to Government.