Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Strategic Direction of Bord Bia: Discussion
Mr. John Murray:
We are tracking all opportunities. We see value-add opportunity through sheep's milk. More than 46% of all sheep's milk in the world is produced in the Mediterranean region and, last year, we saw 10% of Spanish farmers in that region exit. We will probably see 5% of Greek farmers exit in the course of this year, as well, down to cost.
That will create opportunity, but we obviously need to be careful around that to ensure we are not going into a marketplace that is not bringing back the right value as well. We are actively working with the Crosse brothers to see what the potential of that is and if we can leverage the network we have in those regions to get a better understanding of that opportunity. It is also about seeing how much of that value-add we can retain in Ireland through some of the farmhouse cheese operators that are using sheep's milk. That is a good, high-value operation. We would like to see that kind of integrated approach across there and we are supportive of a number of supports to try to deliver that.