Mr. Edmund Graham:

On market development, the ICSA wants to make four main points. We need to seek protected geographical indication status for speciality suckler beef. This must underpin a strategy to develop a high-value suckler brand, built around imagery of biodiversity, high animal welfare and low-carbon emissions per hectare. Live exports must be grown and the dairy sector should pay for increased lairage facilities at Cherbourg. Finally, we need to rethink dairy expansion and its impact on beef supplies.

On competitiveness, the ICSA believes that a major threat still exists from Mercosur and we recently met the chief EU Mercosur negotiator. We were left in little doubt that German cars are the priority. It is not realistic to expect Irish beef farmers to be competitive with cheap beef imports from South America. Ireland should resist the momentum for a Mercosur trade agreement and the Oireachtas should vote against any deal in which Irish beef will be undermined. Trade deals have to be seen in the changing context of Brexit. Teagasc should be mandated to ensure that all cost of production measurements account for own labour and own land costs. We should not hide the lack of profitability behind cross subsidisation from off-farm income but we also need to recognise that return on hours worked on farm is often a far better metric for a part-time farmer than increasing gross output or even net margin per hectare. It is now evident that increased intensification does not lead to an economically viable model, as has been demonstrated by research demonstration farms. The conclusion is that suckler beef needs a much higher price and a priority must be to develop niche markets. The corollary is that trying to operate calf-to-beef systems with unsuitable progeny from the dairy herd is futile.