Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank both witnesses for attending and for giving such a comprehensive presentation. The issue of Brexit is facing everyone and all sectors, but for the agriculture sector and farmers in particular, it is the big scare factor.

Someone wrote a long time ago how trouble was only opportunity in work clothes. Is there an opportunity here for Ireland to start to look again at how we market our product and set it apart? Mr. Cotter mentioned the work that is being done on origin tracing and all of the measures around traceability and so on. In regard to the dairy sector, I often think of Kerrygold butter and the fact every pound of butter that leaves Ireland is exported under the one brand everywhere in the world, where it is recognised as being the crème de la crèmeof butter produce and has been very successful. Mention was made of the Red Tractor scheme in Britain. Is there any way we could replicate that type of very high quality assurance for our meat products? While the witnesses are correct in regard to traceability, the one thing we have in Ireland, that none of the other producers have, is the concept of the family farm - our product comes from a family farm and the animals are grass-fed. This is something we could and should be using to greater effect in order to go for the high end of the market and to set our product apart.

Mr. Cotter is correct that we are competing with Latin America and other places which have at least 30% lower costs of production than we do. It is worth noting that beef produced on these huge feed lots is being sold in the same packaging and the same places as beef from animals that comes solely from a grass-fed production system. What are the witnesses comments on this? Is there an opportunity for Bord Bia to look again at how our meat products are marketed? I am just throwing this out there, given the product is grass-fed, fully traceable and free from all hormones and antibiotics. The GM factor is also something that could offer a niche for us.

I believe this is where we need to be going. We need to go to the niche on the top shelf, where our product, exported throughout the world, is seen as the best. I recently spoke to tourists from Germany, who talked of how Ireland has this image of being clean and green, with all of its rain. It is something the world recognises us for. I think we should try to use it to greater effect. The target of increasing the value of our output by such a large amount by 2025 can only be achieved by increasing the value of what we export, rather than increasing the volume. I believe this is the area we need to look at. I would be interested to hear the comments of the witnesses on that and on the work that Bord Bia, as the marketing agency for Irish agricultural produce, could do in regard to making it happen.