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

I thank the witnesses for their contributions. Again, I commend Bord Bia on a lot of its work. It is important that Irish agriculture has a structure to market its produce worldwide, and to bring into focus the quality of Irish food and unique way in which much of Irish food is produced. One of the downfalls, which I am sure Bord Bia is well aware of, is that the primary producer struggles so much to make a living. That is the focus of what we are trying to work through here, in particular the beef sector.

Comparisons were made between the European average and where we are. One of the things that has always struck me is that given the quality of products we produce, including animals that are grass fed, which is unique, the fact that we have family farms, which is unique in many ways, and the scale we work at, it should result in a premium price being paid to the primary producer, which is one of the core arguments. How we succeed in doing so is what we are at but the consensus always seems to be that the farmer must become more efficient and produce more from less. Being more efficient usually means being more intense. yet that intensity flies in the face of the market model that we try to market the product at, which brings me to the point made by Deputy Cahill. He asked how we can stand over a situation where at least 10% and maybe up to the 20% of our beef comes from a very large feedlot model or an industrial-sized model for producing beef. That situation would be detrimental not just to the current marketing model but the product itself.

Ms McCarthy stated that "Cattle throughput has increased by 36,000 head to date this year". To correct the situation, have we reached a stage where we need to reduce throughput? Should we soon reach a point where we say we are continuing to increase the volume? Ultimately, from where we sit as representatives of farmers, we can see that processors and supermarkets are making a lot of money out of the extra volume while the primary producers make little or nothing. Such a situation does not benefit the common good. Therefore, we need to press the reset button and consider ways to do better.

Ms McCarthy made interesting points about the international market, including that approximately 4% of Irish beef is exported outside of the European Union. I believe there is significant potential in such markets. I know from talking to people about the Asian markets, particularly the Chinese market, that there is a view that anything produced in Ireland is of top quality, that people are prepared to pay a good price, and that there is potential to grow the market if we can do things properly. We can only grow the market properly if we do so for everywhere. There is no point in us going to China and telling people we have a unique product for which they must pay a top price when they can look at Europe and see that we are only getting an average price for our products. We need to find a way to reset ourselves so that Irish beef gets a premium price everywhere that it is sold. I understand that there are difficulties in doing so and I am not saying it would be easy. At the same time, securing a premium price must become the focus for Bord Bia and farming organisations. Everyone has a part to play in securing a premium price.

I want to talk about the bad press that sometimes is given to the beef sector and beef production in particular. There are suckler farmers in my part of the country. In general, suckler farmers produce one thing - the calf - but they must keep a cow for a whole year to produce one calf. Usually, due to the type of land suckler farmers have at their disposal, they cannot finish the calf but sell him or her on to somebody else to finish them. Therefore, suckler farmers are at a great disadvantage. Is there merit in considering alternative models of production for the region? Many farmers have diversified and rear dairy calves on a contract basis, which works for some people but is not the entire solution. Let us assume that an increasing amount of beef comes from an expanding dairy herd. How can we stand over such a situation? How can we produce the quality that we need to produce? How much work has been done in respect of that? Can that model get the premium price that primary producers deserve? All of this, certainly from the point of view of Bord Bia, must be about the price received by primary producers.

I am interested in learning about the relationship between Bord Bia and the factories, processors and supermarkets. Many people believe, and perhaps it is a misconception, that Bord Bia simply finds markets, makes contact, puts the two sides together and then walks away. Bord Bia should act as a guarantor for the primary producer at home because taxpayer's money allows Bord Bia to provide these markets and thus it is unfair if only one section of the industry benefits. I am talking about the beef sector but what I have said applies to all sectors of food produced in Ireland. I will leave my comments at that and I again thank the witnesses for coming here this evening.