Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. In the past ten years prices have fallen by approximately 9% and in the same period the number of vegetable growers, for example, has fallen to a third of what it used to be. Given that so much of the industries concerned have a reliance on the Irish market, is it incomprehensible that our current position has been allowed to develop to this stage? Is the challenge facing the sector even more difficult given that retailers have based their business model on the long-standing trend continuing and consumers have also become used to loss leaders and so on? Will the witnesses give an idea of the negotiating power of the sectors concerned? Will they give their views on the farm to fork strategy and the extent to which economic sustainability for the producers can be developed with officials to ensure food supply and security?