Good progress at 6th Beef Roundtable – Heydon

Fine Gael TD for Kildare South, and Chair of the Fine Gael Internal Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, has welcomed the progress made at the 6^th beef roundtable held this week, the second such meeting held in 2015.

“This week’s 6^th Beef Roundtable saw good progress on a wide range of issues affecting beef farmers.

“Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney, announced that he is ready to provide the necessary legislation to give recognition and legal standing to Producer Organisations in the beef sector for the first time in Ireland. This is really positive news for beef farmers who will have enhanced negotiating positions on issues which affect their farm margins on both the input and output side. The Minister will move on this in the autumn and is considering possible kick-starter funding to help Producer Organisations get established.

“Bord Bia and Teagasc gave presentations at the meeting regarding plans for the beef sector, with the latter seeking the input of Roundtable participants with a view to publishing producers guidelines in early Autumn. This comes on foot of discussions at previous Roundtable meetings where it was decided that farmers needed clear written guidelines on the economics of different types of beef production, particularly farmers involved in specialist bull beef production. Interested parties can input into these draft guidelines between now and the end of the September.

“Also at the meeting, Minister Coveney updated stakeholders on the Food Wise 2025 Strategy. This strategy presents real opportunities for beef farmers. The theme of the Strategy is “local roots – global reach”, and it contains over forty actions specifically designed to improve competitiveness for the beef sector.

“The Government is very aware of the challenges facing Irish beef farmers over the coming year and the Food Wise Strategy is to plan ahead for this and best equip the sector to overcome the challenges. The Strategy is designed to deliver an additional 23,000 jobs in the agri food sector by 2025 through an increase in the value of agri food exports by 85% to €19 billion, increasing the value added to the sector by 70% to €13 billion and increasing the value of primary production by 65% to €10 billion.

“Beef prices are in a better position now than they were at the first Beef Roundtable in April 2014 but we are aware that the challenges facing farmers need a continued focus on the beef sector.”