Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 405: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he has studied potential threats to Irish dairy exports abroad; the degree to which Ireland's export markets are improving, stable or otherwise; his plans to address the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25975/08]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Ireland has been successful in building EU and world market trade over a sustained period. This has been supported by consistent efforts to promote and market Ireland's dairy produce in these markets by Irish operators. Over 80% of Irish dairy production is exported to EU and world markets. 2007 was another successful year for the Irish Dairy Sector with exports up 13% to €2.36bn. This was achieved despite challenges brought about by reduced export refunds, subsidies & aids, increased energy costs and a weakening of the US dollar against the Euro. The increase in dairy exports amounted to €270 million, 65% of the total rise in food and drink exports, and half of this growth came from Asian Markets.

As a consequence of tightness of supply on EU and World Markets, prices for dairy products increased considerably in 2007 and prices reached record levels in the Autumn. Due to this market buoyancy, there are currently no internal aids or export refunds available in the milk sector. However, my Department and I continue to keep the dairy markets under close review and intervene when necessary with the EU Commission to stress the importance of utilizing all market supports available, particularly for butter, in order to stimulate demand and stabilize the market for dairy products.

The key challenges in the medium term will be to ensure that Irish farming and the agrifood sector is at the heart of an evolving high-value food market which is focussed on quality and innovation. This is at the core of Government strategy, evidenced by the National Development Plan 2007-2013, AgriVision 2015 and the Partnership Agreement Towards 2016. A key element of this strategy was the Dairy Investment Fund launched in 2007. My Department provided funding of €114 million towards investment in dairy processing and a total of 19 capital investment projects were approved and awarded Government grant assistance under the Fund, which will generate an estimated capital spend of €286 million at full production. The purpose of the Fund is to increase the efficiency of the main dairy outputs by supporting the upgrading of plant and buildings and to assist operators in capturing new business and in developing new valued added products. Some of these projects have already been completed and the remainder are progressing to the implementation phase.