Mary White (Fianna Fail)

Irish food and drink companies need to move away from being middle men or suppliers to focus on branding our own products.

An interesting article in the farming supplement to today's Irish Independent reports:

UCD's associate professor of public health, Paddy Wall, said Irish dairy products needed to be differentiated on a global level.

"All milk is not equal and it does not have the same nutritional profile," Prof Wall said.

"The family farm setup cannot be compared with the intensive system they have abroad.

"We have the imagery and yet we don't market it."

One cannot even compare the quality of our milk with that produced under intensive farming in the United States. We should differentiate ourselves from other producers so people realise Ireland is a special location for quality food and drink products. We must brand ourselves as the ideal place for nutritious food produced in a sustainable rural farming environment.

Instead of competing in commodities markets, we should develop branded products along the lines of Actimel and, perhaps, Red Bull.