An all-Ireland farming scenario as referred to in a leaked EU Brexit document has been described as a workable option by the ICMSA (Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association).
Commenting on the news of a leaked internal European Commission memo suggesting that trade in agri-foods could be done on an all-Ireland basis post-Brexit, the President of the ICMSA John Comer said that this “certainly looked like a viable option for our dairy and beef sectors”.
Comer said there are obviously very significant political considerations and agreements implied in the scenario outlined, and that is something that could begin to be addressed if and when a government in Northern Ireland is up and running.
But Comer warned that problems are bound to arise in terms of how trade deals concluded post-Brexit and there would also be questions around the standards that would apply to food production in both jurisdictions.
‘Nothing less than madness’
Commenting earlier in the week on reports that the European Commission is set to offer a 70,000t beef quota at this week’s Mercosur talks in Brasilia, Comer said that the move has to be seen as representing the sacrifice of the EU beef sector in general and the Irish beef sector in particular.
The president described the idea that Ireland could even entertain the notion of 70,000t of South American Mercosur beef arriving into the EU at precisely the same time as we would be losing our UK market as nothing less than madness.