Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 7 November 2023
956. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will consider establishing an Irish vegetable marketing body (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48797/23]
View answerThe functions of Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, are to promote, assist and develop the marketing of Irish food and livestock, as well as the production, marketing and consumption of horticulture products. In that regard, Bord Bia's three-year strategy 2022-2025 sets out the objective to grow the value of the horticulture sector (at farm gate) by €51 million, to €521 million, by 2025, with €43 million contributed from the Ireland market and €8 million from exports.
Bord Bia works closely with the horticulture industry across a number of programmes and initiatives. It is also a member of the Horticulture Industry Forum, which includes growers' representatives and other State organisations. The Forum facilitates the aforementioned cooperation, and has recently contributed to my Department's National Strategy for Horticulture 2023- 2007 (launched in June), under Action 32 of Food Vision 2030. The Strategy addresses the challenges and opportunities to sustain and grow the industry, and provides a road map for future development.
Bord Bia is implementing a number of significant three-year promotional campaigns on the domestic and UK markets to promote increased sales and consumption of horticulture produce. These include campaigns for fruit, vegetables, potatoes and mushrooms on the domestic market, and also for mushrooms in the UK - Ireland's key export market. The Bord Bia Food Choice Matters campaign, which is underpinned by the Bord Bia Quality Mark, features horticulture strongly, and with a high level of recognition of the Quality Mark by consumers, it provides an important signal of the origin and quality of local fresh produce on the supermarket shelf.
These actions will drive change and growth across all the horticulture industry’s sub sectors, and lead to environmental, economic and social sustainability.
It should be noted that under the principles (including the freedom of movement of goods and services) set out in the EU Treaties, State Bodies cannot promote goods on the internal EU market solely on the basis of origin.
