Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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233. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the degree to which he and his Department continue to monitor opportunities for growth in the dairy sector having particular regard to geopolitical developments and the sustainability of family farms; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21341/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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My Department is constantly monitoring development opportunities in the Dairy sector. I have recently undertaken a number of trade missions in order to gain access to new 3rd country markets and develop existing ones for dairy and other agrifood sectors.

In addition, against the background of Brexit, I have recently asked Bord Bia to conduct market profiling exercise to identify opportunities in new and more mature markets, and the output of this exercise will provide valuable market intelligence both for industry operators and policy makers.

Competitiveness is key if Irish operators are to be successful on international markets. My Department works closely with industry stakeholders, providing financial and practical support to bring initiatives which encourage sustainable development of the sector through on farm skills development and collaboration leading to increased efficiencies. It also provides funding for Teagasc to provide research , education and advice to improve farm and industry competitiveness, and funding is also available through Enterprise Ireland for lean manufacturing, energy efficiency and other competitiveness measures.

There have been a number of geopolitical factors which have exacerbated market volatility in recent years, including the ban on exports to Russia. As Minister, I have been an advocate of deploying the market measures utilised by the Commission, such as Aids to Private Storage and Intervention. These have been deployed and this has helped put a floor under prices over the past two years. There has been significant price recovery this year. Additionally, the Common Market Organisation Regulations agreed by the Irish EU Presidency in 2013 provides for more flexible "exceptional measures, such as those deployed during the most recent dairy market crisis. These included the provision of direct aid to farmers, the voluntary production reduction scheme and the €11 million in funding that facilitated the creation of a €150 million low interest loan fund for farmers.

 It should be noted that there have been a number of significant successes in recent times and agri food exports to China, for example, have almost tripled in value to more than €700m since 2010, much of this in the dairy sector. My Department will continue to evaluate opportunities in other markets and to work with agencies to assist industry with market development into the future.