There has been so much noise around the Brexit deal and its collapse this week that it would be easy to forget other big events in Brussels that will affect Irish agriculture in the years ahead.

The launch of the CAP Communication on ‘‘The Future of Food and Farming’’ last week was met with muted reaction by the farm organisations, largely because, as the commissioner explained himself, it was evolution of policy rather than revolution. However, Copa, the EU farm organisation’s umbrella body, is emphasising the need to have “simplification that delivers results for farmers” and a CAP that “truly remains a common policy without renationalisation” and “backed by a strong budget.” It also puts down a marker of opposition to a capping or degressivity of payments while accepting the smart farming, innovation and environmental proposals.

The commissioner returned to some of these issues in his address to this Food Wise 2025 event in Dublin. He was particularly frank about the need for industry to be mindful of keeping supply and demand in balance and the need for businesses to recognise market signals when making their decisions. He cited the example of the jump of 440,000t of milk in September this year, particularly in France, Germany and Ireland as evidence of market signals not being heeded, a point he also made when speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal Dairy Day event recently.

He further emphasised the point with reference to skimmed milk powder (SMP) intervention stocks of 500,000t as not being the basis for defending the €59bn CAP budget that would be under severe pressure in the next budgetary round with the departure of the UK which was a net contributor to the EU of about €10bn annually. He emphasised that the CAP would be about a smart, sustainable and market-orientated food sector.

The commissioner also explained the thinking behind the proposed transfer for CAP delivery to the member state on the basis that one size does not fit all across the EU by emphasising that measures tailored to local conditions work best in delivering environmental and climate results. The environment is a recurring theme of the CAP 2020 proposals and the commissioner was blunt in telling the audience at Food Wise that there was a gulf between the rhetoric and operational reality. He highlighted that Ireland was one of the few countries operating with higher emissions than 1990 and gave the example of the Dutch culling 50,000 cows to deal with a phosphate problem.

This point was reinforced by Pierre Boscu from the commissioner’s team in DG Agri who told the conference that it wasn’t about making agriculture in the EU cut back production as this would cause carbon leakage. This is where production would be transferred to other parts of the world.

Bill Callanan, chief inspector with the Departmant of Agriculture, outlined how Irish farming could reduce its carbon footprint per unit of production.

Foremost was efficiency such as getting the age of cows calving reduced, sequestration through more forestry, a point emphasised by Gerry Boyle from Teagasc, and again consistent with what the commissioner had said on the topic. In fact, he said that forestry had the potential to make the greatest contribution from agriculture in tackling climate change.

Energy and the potential to involve farmers in the production of renewable energy was also highlighted as a means of Ireland reducing its green house gas emissions.

Laura Burke from the Environmental Protection Agency told the conference that there was no one solution that fits every place in Ireland, a point picked up by Minister Doyle who said a “total land-use policy” was needed that tailored farming and other activities to the particular conditions on every individual piece of land.

Forestry is a controversial issue among Irish farmers but just as the commissioner was frank in saying Ireland needed to “reboot its afforestation policies,” several other speakers also highlighted its role.

Progress

The ambitions for export growth of Irish food to €19bn between 2015 and 2025 is very much driven by expansion in dairy after the ending of quotas in 2015. Despite the setback with weak market prices in 2016, total food exports exceeded €12bn. The UK remains the key individual market, notwithstanding Brexit uncertainty, at €4.8bn, followed by the US on just over €1bn and then China at €946,000.

Dairy and pigmeat sales have grown significantly in the US and China while France, Netherlands, Germany and Italy are important beef and sheep meat markets after the UK which accounts for half of all sales. Progress was reported on market access for manufacturing beef and middle eastern markets but volume of sales remained low.