Written answers

Wednesday, 1 July 2015

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Russian Market

Photo of Martin FerrisMartin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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35. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will report on the current situation regarding the Russian ban on food imports from the European Union and how this is affecting Ireland. [26067/15]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The announcement last week that the Russian ban on EU food imports will be extended for a further year to August 2016 is extremely disappointing. It has to be acknowledged that there are difficult geopolitical tensions at play here, and that a negative impact on the EU’s agri-food sector is an unfortunate consequence. There is a clear need for an EU-wide response and the Commission’s market support measures to date are welcome and remain a key part of the solution for EU producers.

Irish agri-food exports to Russia declined from €213 million in 2013 to €145 million in 2014. Some of this reduction was accounted for by a ban on EU pigmeat imports which came into effect in January 2014, before the Presidential ban on most EU food imports came into effect in August. Exports will obviously be much lower this year as the ban will be in place for the full year, with dairy, fish and pigmeat being the main sectors affected. For the first four months of 2015, agri-food exports to Russia amounted to €15.3 million, an 80% reduction on the same period last year.

Ireland is committed to continuing to work in partnership with the Russian and EU authorities to help to resolve these issues in any way we can. I have met with the Russian Ambassador to Ireland and there have been two high-level meetings between my Department and the Russian authorities.

My Department continues to work with industry to source new and alternative markets internationally for Irish food and the announcements by the US and China on Irish beef earlier this year are proof of the success of these efforts. Agri-food exports to all non-EU markets grew to a record €3.1 billion in 2014, an increase of 15% over 2013, with particularly strong growth in exports to Asia (+36%) and the Gulf States (+39%). These new markets, with growing middle class populations and high disposable incomes, will provide significant growth opportunities for Ireland’s dairy, meat and seafood sectors.

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