Johnny Brady (Meath West, Fianna Fail)

The agrifood industry is ideally placed to play a very significant role in this country's economic recovery. The sector directly employs more than 150,000 people and its economic benefit is felt throughout the country. With the economy relying on an export-led recovery, the agrifood sector continues to generate exports of goods worth up to €8 billion to more than 160 countries around the world annually. As the Taoiseach said on the occasion of the launch of the Food Harvest 2020 report, this country's future economic growth will be driven by the export of goods and services, stimulating activity and employment throughout the rest of the economy. The agrifood sector is "the embodiment of the type of export-led recovery which the Government is pursuing."

Food Harvest 2020provides the agrifood sector with a blueprint for the next decade and captures the considerable complexity of the sector. It underlines its unique and special position within the Irish economy and it illustrates the potential which exists for this sector to grow even further.

With more than 200 recommendations, the Food Harvest 2020 report is very detailed. The Oireachtas committee is convinced that the agrifood sector can deliver real returns and be at the forefront of this country's economic recovery. The report shows that Ireland can grow its exports of food and beverages by one third to €12 billion annually, while also increasing the value of primary production by our farmers and fishermen by €1.5 billion and value added in processing by €3 billion. These are ambitious and challenging targets but they are also achievable.

The broad welcome to the report is indicative of a confident and ambitious sector which wants to move forward and harness the full potential which will undoubtedly arise from the inevitable increase in demand for food following surging global population growth. In 1999, the world's population crossed the 6 billion threshold for the first time; in 2012, it will reach 7 billion and by 2015, 8 billion. At the same time, in some of the world's most populous countries such as Brazil, Russia, India and China, economic development is creating new consumer audiences who demand new and diverse food solutions.

Substantial investment in agriculture, marine and food research over the past decade, including record levels of Government investment, has allowed Irish producers and food companies to build up wide-ranging expertise, particularly in the key dairy and beef sectors. The vitality of those sectors is demonstrated by the fact that Ireland exports 85% of dairy products and more than 90% of beef production. Through investment and innovation, meat and dairy, our traditional export sectors, have been strengthened and safeguarded.

The aim now must be to build on the success of the past and to meet the competitive challenge of the international marketplace. The agrifood industry has real strength and real opportunities and the challenge is to build on its knowledge and capability so that it remains at the forefront of our international competitors. The Food Harvest 2020report provides a road map to guide the agrifood sector and inform its development, particularly one so central to the Irish economy.

The 2020 committee has set out a vision based on smart, green growth. There is a renewed interest in the agrifood sector among the wider society and a growing recognition of the role it can play in our economic recovery. Food Harvest 2020 sets a number of challenging targets across all the individual sectors, from beef to dairy, horticulture to organics and seafood to forestry and bio-energy crops. The challenges and the opportunities vary from sector to sector, but each has its contribution to make to the development and growth of the wider Irish agrifood sector.

We are all aware of the impending abolition of EU milk quotas in 2015 and the 2020 committee has made a series of recommendations which, if acted on, have the potential to deliver a 50% increase in milk production, which would enhance the primary output value of the sector by about €700 million. I welcome the fact that the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith, has already acted on one of those key recommendations by establishing a dairy expansion activation group.

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