Dr. Frank O'Mara:

In any market one likes to see competition. One would hope that as the size of the sector develops, there would be more buyers. Our colleagues in Bord Bia would obviously have a big role to play in the development of marketing and the markets for organic produce. I am not too informed about it but I know that for Bord Bia, a lot of interest was shown at an organics marketing event held in Germany a couple of weeks ago. At that event there was very strong interest shown in Irish organic produce. I am sure that Bord Bia is well able to speak for itself but my feeling is that Bord Bia colleagues would say that there is a good market for organic produce.

The Deputy asked about organic produce ending up in the conventional market. That is a concern of farmers. It is a concern of farmers who are considering getting into organics. It is a concern of farmers who are already in organics but are worried, with the prospect of a lot of additional farmers joining the scheme, that the market will be flooded. Everyone is very keen that the market side of organics is developed every bit as much as the technical side of getting farmers into organics and going through the conversion process. Our sister organisation, Bord Bia, is very conscious of these matters.