Robert Troy
Question:257. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to introduce supports for beef farmers in view of the fact the price per kilogram is less than the break-even. [7802/17]
View answerThursday, 16 February 2017
Questions (257)
Written answers
I am acutely aware of the issues currently being faced by Irish beef farmers. My Department currently provides a range of supports across a number of schemes for Irish beef farmers.
One example is the Beef Data and Genomics Programme which forms part of Ireland’s Rural Development Programme and will provide suckler farmers in Ireland with some €300 million of funding over the next 6 years. The program builds upon the substantial investment in data recording and genomics which has been made in recent years and will drive further developments and improvements in this area. It complements other RDP schemes available for beef farmers including GLAS, ANC scheme, TAMS and Knowledge Transfer Groups.
I will also be launching a scheme to provide funding of facilitators for Producer Organisations in the beef sector. This will encourage primary beef producers to form Producer Organisations and allow farmers to engage collectively with processors .
The work of Teagasc and ICBF is also critically important and my Department will continue to provide support to these organisations to improve productivity, reduce costs and improve overall profitability on Irish farms.
Access to new markets is also important and significant progress has been made in this context in recent years. My Department is currently in the process of attempting to secure beef access to a range of Third Countries including China, South Korea, Ukraine, Thailand and Vietnam. This builds on the opening of some major markets in the last two years including the US, Canada and Japan. This is a vital means of providing Ireland’s beef sector with as many commercial opportunities as possible for Irish beef in addition to our existing European markets.
My Department and state agencies such as Bord Bia will continue to work to ensure that as many markets as possible are opened for Irish produce to provide sufficient outlets for exports of Irish beef, lamb, pig and dairy exports. I allocated additional funding to Bord Bia in Budget 2017 for the specific purpose of dealing with the impact of Brexit which will help to support Irish food and drink exports in 2017. This, in addition to the opening of a new office by Bord Bia in Singapore this year, will ensure that exports of Irish beef are promoted effectively to provide viable export markets for any increases in Irish beef production.
I am also very conscious of the vital role that live exports play in providing an alternative market outlet for Irish farmers. The opening of the Turkish market for live cattle exports has seen over 19,500 exported in 2016, a number I am hopeful will grow in 2017. I also note that exports of live cattle to Libya have recommenced which is a positive and welcome development. My Department is also currently actively examining the possibilities of bilateral health certificates for the export of cattle to Kazakhstan, Montenegro and for breeding cattle to Morocco. I remain committed to ensuring that Irish beef producers have the option of exporting to as many markets as possible.