Agriculture Update: Growth at EU/Worldwide Level 7th November 2012

To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the markets currently showing great potential for growth at EU or worldwide level for Irish dairy products; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
– Bernard J. Durkan.

For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 6th November, 2012.  Parliamentary Question No. 897

Ref No:   47935/12     Proof:   1060

REPLY

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine: (Simon Coveney)

Irish exports in the agri food sector have performed strongly in recent years, and I believe that it is well positioned to take advantage of future increases in demand arising from increasing global population.  The Food Harvest 2020 report sets out the strategic vision for the agri-food and fishing sector.  From a dairying perspective, the ending of milk quotas in 2015 represents an exceptional opportunity to increase milk output, and Food Harvest has targeted a 50% increase in milk production in the period to 2020.  This target is ambitious but I also believe it is realistic, because the dairy sector has the capability to expand at producer and at processor level.

In that context, the Dairy Expansion Activation Group established to identify specific actions needed to deliver on the Food Harvest targets, has produced a Road Map setting out 55 actions required to achieve the 50% increase in milk production. Key areas for action include the identification of markets, the improvement of efficiency at processing level and improving production efficiency at farm level.  While many of these actions will be taken at commercial level, my Department and its agencies are working with industry to provide a framework to support the necessary development, and I am personally chairing the High Level Implementation Committee, in order to monitor progress and take appropriate action to support the successful implementation of Food Harvest 2020.  

Ireland has access to markets worldwide for dairy products and exports some 85% of our dairy production to over eighty countries, with more than two thirds of that going to the EU.  It is clear that markets will have to be found for the increased production envisaged in Food Harvest 2020.  I have been very active in developing relationships in new and expanding markets in order to build the kind of confidence in Irish production and control systems that provide a platform for long-term trading relationships in the future.  As part of that effort I have headed trade missions to China, the US and Algeria to further develop these important relationships.  In China I met my ministerial counterparts in the Agriculture and Quarantine Ministries to help raise the profile of the Irish agri-food industry, including the dairy sector.  I will continue to work with industry to raise the profile of the Irish dairy sector, and the Irish agri-food sector generally, in emerging markets in the Far East, North Africa and elsewhere.