Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to get the whole of page 9 on the screen if it is possible. People know Ireland is well known for its agricultural trade and exports. Of those exports detailed in the chart, 4.3 billion tonnes went to the UK, 420,000 tonnes went to the Netherlands, and 190,000 tonnes went to the United States. They are our biggest markets. Page 10 of the Department's annual report details the 2018 imports. This page tells me Ireland imported 13 million tonnes of foodstuff last year. The report tells me Ireland exported 7 million tonnes of agrifood products but we imported 13 million tonnes of agrifood products. I thought Ireland was a big agricultural exporter. I want to quote a few figures directly from the annual report and Mr. Gleeson can comment if he wishes. To put this in context to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, I am saying as the Chairman of the Committee of Public Accounts that I am surprised by this. Maybe we should have all known this and these facts and figures have possibly been hiding in plain sight for decades. The annual report of the Department says the volume of the agrifood exports in 2018 was 7 million tonnes. The next page details the volume of imports, which was 13 million tonnes for 2018. Clearly, Ireland is importing much more agrifood products than it is exporting. I am going on the Department's charts when I say that. Then I look at the top ten destinations for agrifood exports in 2018 on page 9, and that says we exported 4.3 million tonnes of agrifood products to the UK. Am I right about that?