Irish beef farmers should be getting very concerned about the pitifully slow rate of progress being made at the Brexit negotiations.
After all, it is the commodity which they produce that will be most exposed if a ‘Hard Brexit’ becomes a reality.
Continuing access to the British market on a tariff-free basis is vitally important for the Irish beef industry if its current export profile is to be maintained. The UK is the world’s most lucrative market for red meat. And this is not going to charge, once Britain leaves Europe.
There has been a lot of talk about the need to secure new markets for Irish beef over the coming years. And this makes perfect sense. But the reality is that Irish meat operators will not be able to find new outlets – at an equivalent price – quickly enough, if the UK market is effectively closed off to them post 2019.
New Zealand already enjoys trading arrangements of this nature when it comes to putting lamb into the European Union. So such an approach for Irish beef is feasible. My concern is that I have not yet heard any Irish political leader or farm organisation representative calling for the introduction of such measures.
And the clock is ticking. In reality there is very little time left to sort out the Brexit issue. If one considers holidays, plus the need for all of the EU-27 member states to ratify whatever deal is finally proposed, the time remaining for actual negotiations to take place within is very limited.
One, potentially, good news story to come out of Brussels over recent days is the UK’s seeming willingness to pay the EU a Brexit divorce settlement of €39 billion. IFA president Joe Healy has made it very clear that Irish farmers must not suffer any reduction in support levels, as a consequence of Britain leaving the EU.
And, he is absolutely right. So with this in mind, surely Joe and his COPA colleagues should now be calling for a substantial proportion of this money – let’s say €15 billion – to be ring fenced solely for agricultural support purposes. After all, farming and food will be the real losers if national governments cannot agree to increase their EU funding commitments in the wake of Brexit.
Leo Varadkar made a bit of a splash when he visited Belfast a few weeks back. It was very refreshing to hear his forthright views on Brexit and, where the border is concerned, telling the UK authorities that they must take the lead in coming up with proposals that make sense from everyone’s point of view.
Taking this approach has merit up to a point. But the bigger picture remains that of ensuring the border does not interfere with the development of an all-island agrifood sector. This is the only strategic option that makes sense for farming and food throughout Ireland. And, if needs be, Dublin will have to chip in with its own proposals at some stage in order to make this a reality.