Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 267: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if, unilaterally or together with his European Union colleagues, he has put in place or will put in place adequate measures to ensure European food security, continuity and consistency of supply adequate to meet the demands of the EU for the foreseeable future, having particular regard to the need to ensure self sufficiency in the course of the current turbulent global economic situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5302/09]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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According to the European Commission's latest statistics, the EU's overall trade in agricultural produce is fairly close to balance with its total trade of almost €153 billion in 2007, split between imports of €77.4 billion and exports of €75.1 billion. Broadly speaking, the EU is a net importer of raw products such as tropical products, certain fruit and vegetables and oils/oilseeds while it is a net exporter of more processed products such as food preparations and beverages. It currently has a surplus of dairy products, whilst trade in livestock and cereal products is in balance.

European food security and agricultural production issues are dealt with through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which is constantly evolving to meet the demands of increased globalisation and competitive EU and world commodity markets. The 2003 reforms of the CAP, with the introduction of the decoupling of direct payments under the Single Payment Scheme, allowed farmers to respond to the demands of the market and effectively meet consumers' needs.

Ireland is a very significant net food exporter and is self sufficient in terms of the majority of agricultural commodities. Latest statistics from the CSO indicate that Ireland is 675% self sufficient in terms of beef and over 230% self sufficient in terms of meat production (beef/sheepmeat/pigmeat/poultry) in overall terms. A similar situation exists for dairy products where Ireland produces significantly higher quantities of butter and cheese than is required domestically.