Ms Anne Randles:

As our chairman said, one of the key focuses of our strategic plan over the past three years has been to grow new markets for the additional product that will come on line. We are working in a very low-margin business and any differential we face in terms of market access, particularly in terms of tariffs, can have a very disproportionate effect on our competitiveness in a third country market. China is the major focus in this regard. As Senator Mary Ann O’Brien said, New Zealand has a free trade agreement with China which has allowed it to grow business substantially there. The fact that New Zealand enters the Chinese market with zero or very low average tariff levels gives it a very beneficial strategic advantage over us in one of our most important third country markets. We have been dealing with this, and it is not easy. We were disappointed that Australia has also negotiated a free trade agreement with China to give it comparable market entry conditions to New Zealand. It puts us on the back foot again.

There is an element of frustration at a European and an Irish level, given that our focus is on third country market development, that China is not on the list of countries with which the European Commission is prepared to negotiate a free trade agreement. There will be no opportunity in the short to medium term for us to gain similar market access to the most important import market in the world for dairy products. This must be addressed in some form. If there is not to be a free trade agreement across all products, is there any opportunity to differentiate and negotiate just on dairy or agrifoods? Standing back and saying it will not happen is frustrating for us.

It is not acceptable in the longer term. We ask the Irish authorities and the Government to see what can be done in that regard.

In terms of market access, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP, negotiations with the USA are crucial for the development of business for the Irish dairy industry as well. We have had phenomenal success with Kerrygold in the US and we have grown that brand substantially. On foot of many of the issues we have discussed already in terms of promoting Irish dairy, its points of differentiation and grass-based production, particularly on the branded side, we foresee enormous benefits and opportunities to grow that business. It is a premium branded business for Irish dairying and it is a key and mature market that can take a significant amount of additional branded business. We would strongly support the swift conclusion of those negotiations and, hopefully, quite ambitious market access for dairy products into the US.