Tom Barry (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in today. They mentioned input price volatility, which is something being felt by all sectors currently. Feed grains have gone from €115 per tonne in early 2010 to €250 per tonne today. There is a significant quality issue in Ireland because of contracts, and the industry should be conscious of that as well, as nobody in the feed industry saw it coming. The witnesses mentioned Asian markets. Although we need them to expand and put growth targets together, we should be constantly moving in the value-added brand sector, as the day will come when the Asian markets will take care of themselves. They will not watch us supply them forever without trying to replicate what we do, so it would be perhaps foolish to put all our eggs in that basket.

My late father got out of milk production in 1991. We received £1 a gallon at that stage, which equates approximately to 28 cent per litre. That is scarily close to what the farmer is getting today, some 21 years later. It seems Irish agriculture has absorbed inflation figures for 21 years as nothing else has. The price of milk from the shelf has increased by 25% and over 21 years one could not begrudge that increase. Fertiliser in 1991 was approximately €130 per tonne and today it is approximately €330 for the same amount, a 60% increase. I know dairy farmers do not use as much fuel as tillage farmers but it is still a significant cost, and that has gone from approximately 21.5 cent in 1991 to approximately 86 cent per litre today, a 409% increase.

We have increased our competitiveness and the single farm payment has been a very important influence. Nevertheless, we cannot continue to produce at the quality we do and not have a fair price for farmers.

That brings me to my next point. I am interested in regional branding, to which Deputy Ó Cuív referred and I would be interested in hearing the witnesses' comments on whether produce should or not should not have an Irish brand.

When the price farmers obtained for milk fell to 19 cent a litre, 2 litres of milk was being sold for €1.19 in our multiples. I purchased a 2 litre container of milk last week for €2.25. Equating the two prices, the farmer should get 36 cent a litre for milk, if the original calculation was correct. We can be sure that the farmer was getting as little as possible at that time. Even allowing for that comparison - which I did not agree with at the time because farmers should have been getting more than 19 cent a litre for milk - that would mean that every farmer today should get a basic price before quality add-ons of 36 cent a litre for milk. That is not happening in the marketplace. It amounts to a 20% deviation in price.

Our farmers are suffering one of the greatest impacts in this area because their product price is not linked to the market price, and I am sure that could be extrapolated across the world. I appreciate we must remain competitive worldwide but the 2020 strategy will not achieve its full potential if we do not guarantee price recognition or linkage to the farmer because that strategy is built on that base. We have to protect the base which is farming. Farmers have suffered as a result of the horrible weather this year. This was meant to be a good year but it rained constantly from July onwards and nobody saw that coming. Thanks be to God for area aid and that the single farm payment scheme is in place to carry the day, which it will do. We need to work with the multiples to ensure they realise that if they constantly extract the last cent from the primary producers, they will vote with their feet. They will retrench and will not expose themselves, especially in these times.

I was interested in Deputy Heydon's comment on sugar. We were promised the price would be €400 a tonne and the figure is pushing close on €900 plus a tonne. I would be interested to hear the witnesses' views on that.