The inaugural meeting of the new EU Sheep Reflection Group, set up by EU commissioner Phil Hogan and chaired by John Bryan, was held in Brussels on Thursday last. While there were lots of opportunities identified for the EU sheep sector, including growing sheepmeat production to take advantage of a deficit in EU production, there were also numerous challenges raised. Many of the challenges identified are comparable despite significant differences in sheep production in participating EU member states.

Some of the most pertinent issues were falling consumption and profitability issues, particularly at farm level. These two challenges were very much seen as intertwined with an increase in consumption, especially in younger consumers, central to rising demand.

Younger people were also back on the agenda in discussions on overcoming the big challenge of attracting more young farmers into sheep production. Like is the case in Ireland, significant challenges lie ahead in enticing young people to continue farming in rural and hill areas. It was stated by many member states that sheep farming is fundamental in maintaining jobs and economic activity in the most rural areas. Spain, as an example, has seen large areas of land abandoned due to poor profitability which in turn has been detrimental on economic activity in towns and villages in these areas, a situation that more and more member states could unfortunately have to come to terms with.

The Sheep reflection Group has a very good Irish representation including two officials from the Department of Agriculture, Declan Fennel, Bord Bia, Joe Hyland, MD Irish Country Meats representing UECBV (European meat processing organisation), Cormac Healy, MII and James Murphy, Chairman Sheep Ireland. Further meetings are taking place in early 2016 with the group meeting later in the year at which stage recommendations for the sector will be compiled.