Mr. John Spink:

U-Protein is a €3 million project. We have another large EU-funded project that will start soon. The development of plant proteins has been a significant focus for us for more than a year and is ramping up. We are interested in how we can effectively extract plant proteins. It also uses some of the facilities in Moorepark. The work on protein would have applied primarily to milk until now. We are trying to identify what we can grow in Ireland. Can we grow crops with particularly high-value proteins? How are they extracted? What are the markets? This looks at high-value products, including sports nutrition and whatever other markets there might be for proteins that we can effectively grow and extract.

We are also looking at agronomy, which is how the crop is grown, how that affects the amount and quality of the protein, how it is processed, and what it can be used for, so that we can effectively identify raw materials to be used by large food manufacturing companies. There has been a significant increase in plant-based foods, as I am sure the committee will be aware. Many of those are based on imported crops. We are focused on ensuring that the raw materials come from Ireland and the value goes back to the Irish growers rather than being imported.

I have not come equipped with information about the total value. I was not expecting the question.