Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal at the National Ploughing Championships in Co Laois this Thursday, the Commissioner said an additional €30m has been allocated to the €80m budget for promotion of EU agricultural products in new markets, bringing the total dedicated budget for promotion in 2016 to €110m. The new scheme of promotion will be in place from 1 December 2015, following member state and European Parliament approval of new regulations around the promotion of agricultural products in October last year.

Hogan added that the Commission had received a number of complaints in relation to the “cumbersome nature” of the existing promotion scheme. He said that under the terms of the new scheme, food businesses can go directly to Brussels with an application form in order to get direct assistance from the European Commission on promotion measures.

Pressed on which markets the Commission would be targeting, Hogan said there would be business missions conducted in 2016 to Mexico, Colombia, China, Japan and, perhaps, Iran.

“We’re looking at every possible opportunity for promotion, mainly through meeting ambassadors,” the Commissioner said. “I met the Chinese ambassador last week. We’re doing everything we can in order to open up new opportunities for our products and to re-open some of the markets that have been closed to us, including China which has been closed down considerably in terms of powder products.”

Hogan also indicated to the Irish Farmers Journal that work is on-going behind the scenes to re-open the Russian market, which has been closed to most European food products since August 2014.

Hogan added that he is expecting to get “significant traction” on the Commission’s diplomatic offensives in 2016.

Extra €30m in EU food promotion budget for 2016

The dedicated budget for promotion of EU food products to new markets has increased to €110m, according to EU Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan.