Kiwi experience for new IFA boss
Irish Farmers Association president Joe Healy has been in the top job only a few months.
He says most of this lamb goes to Britain via the EU and what happens in future will be of interest to Ireland.
A big issue for Irish producers is the drop in the value of the British pound against the Euro. The situation is not helped by the perceived arrogance of the British Brexit negotiating team. UK Brexit Minister David Davis is described as “thick as mince” by one of his own colleagues.
Irish European parliamentarian Mairead McGuinness claims “Britain is wanting its own cake and trying to eat ours”. He believes Brexit is as critical for Ireland as was the 1921 treaty which sealed Irish Independence.
Joe Healy says the good news for Ireland is that the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier, is a former French Minister of Agriculture.
“He has a good concept of agriculture and at least knows the difference between a cow and a sheep.”
Healy says the problems for Ireland are immense. The IFA has been lobbying other European farming groups and politicians to try to get them to understand the huge impact Brexit will have on Ireland and by default the EU.
The big issue is to try to retain a ‘soft’ border between Northern Ireland, a part of Britain, and Eire (Republic of Ireland) which is in the EU.
“There are 300 official border crossings and many, many more unofficial crossings which will come back into operation as soon as a ‘hard’ border is set up,” he told Rural News.
“That could lead to smuggling which we don’t want.”
He says the border issue is bizarre. “We actually took a group of EU politicians to one of the numerous farms that straddle the border.
Almost 1 billion litres of milk cross the border for further processing, up to 400,000 northern UK lambs come into Eire for processing and as many pigs go from the south to Northern Ireland for further processing.”
Healy says Baileys Irish Cream goes back and forth across the border five times for various stages of processing before it is ready for the consumer.
Despite centuries of political tension with Britain, Ireland remains dependent on the British market. Healy points out that up to 60% of Ireland’s dairy products are exported to the UK, and about 50% of its beef. And 90% of Ireland’s mushroom exports cross the Irish Sea; that commodity is very badly hit by the fall in the British pound.
