Sir, - In your report of the resumption of live cattle exports to Libya (The Irish Times, June 10th), the IFA President, Tom Parlon, is quoted as saying it is "a major boost to the livestock sector". The news seems also to be universally and unquestionably welcomed in Government circles.
Of course, it will boost short-term prices at the meat plants. But what sort of profitable, long-term markets are we going after where the competition comes from the scrubby semi-desert of the Australian outback or from Romania, perhaps the most backward economy in Europe?
And how does exporting cattle on the hoof develop the processing sector? I am old enough to remember cattle being walked aboard the ferries to England and Scotland. Then it was cursed as helpless dependency!
Libya and similar markets mean dependence on the cursed CAP export subsidies. These enable beef traders to reduce selling prices to give-away levels at great cost to the rest of us taxpayers, and even bigger cost to other, really poor, farmers overseas. This dependency is bad for the Irish beef industry, and very bad for poor farmers in Africa! It is also a system beneath our intelligence as policy-makers. We can and should do better.
Our biggest agri-industry urgently needs to move away from volatile, low-margin, subsidy-dependent commodity markets. It must lift its game and tackle seriously the sophisticated "home-market" of the EU. This means taking a long term view, from feed to final product, that embraces real quality, product innovation, and a revolution in marketing.
Fintan O'Toole's excellent beef industry reports make it clear that the dealers and processors lack the imagination or inclination to do this. Their world seems to be more the quick deal and the quick buck.
The Government should stop supporting Libyan "Band-Aids" and demand instead the leadership that will put Irish beef into the "domestic" European heartland and give the industry a future. Otherwise, when the subsidies stop, as they surely will, what then? - Yours, etc.,
Dr Brian Scott, Executive Director, Oxfam Ireland, Burgh Quay, Dublin 2.