Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 29 Feb 1996

Vol. 462 No. 4

Written Answers. - Food Imports.

Ivor Callely

Ceist:

97 Mr. Callely asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry the total value of food imports into Ireland in 1995; if he will give a breakdown of these imports; the measures, if any, taken to deter the need for these imports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3796/96]

Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry (Mr. Yates)

According to figures supplied by the Central Statistics Office, in the period January to July 1995, the last period for which complete figures are available, Ireland imported food and drink products to the value of £719 million. The breakdown of this figure is as follows:

Food and Drinks	£000
Meat and Meat Preparations	73,354
Dairy Products and birds' eggs	75,141
Fish, crustaceans, molluscs and preparations thereof	26,074
Cereals and cereal preparations	141,653
Vegetables and fruit	164,635
Sugars, sugar preparations and honey	50,843
Coffee, tea, cocoa, spices and manufactures thereof	68,974
Miscellaneous edible products and preparations	43,465
Beverages	74,936
Total	719,075

While it is obviously desirable that as much as possible of our food and drink needs are met from domestic production, factors such as climate prevent the production of many such products in Ireland. Quite apart from this consideration, it would be unrealistic to expect that trade in food and drink could flow in one direction only, in the international trading conditions that apply today.

In this connection it should be noted that in the period in question i.e. January to July 1995, Ireland's food and drinks exports were valued at £2.9 billion, representing a balance of approximately £2.2 billion in our favour. The measures which are available under the National Development Strategy for the Food Industry which I launched early last year have been designed to help the industry to compete even more effectively on both home and export markets.