A special meeting of the Food Wise High Level Implementation Committee (HLIC) was chaired by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed to discuss the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic for the agri-food sector.
Participants in the tele-conference, which took place yesterday, Wednesday, April 15, included senior leadership from: the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine; the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation; Enterprise Ireland; Teagasc; Bord Iascaigh Mhara; and Bord Bia.
The committee discussed: the whole-of-Government response to Covid-19; the continuity of vital services to the sector; and the immediate and potential long-term impacts for the sector.
Commenting afterwards, Minister Creed stated: “The Irish agri-food sector is critical to maintaining food supply chains during the current unprecedented retail demand both here and abroad.
However, this increased retail demand does not offset the collapse of food service markets at home, across the EU and internationally.
“My department and its agencies are working together to support primary producers and food businesses through this crisis as well as safeguarding the future of the sector,” the minister added.
Increased advance direct payments announced
The European Commission has adopted two measures to help the agri-food sector as of today, the authority says.
The measures will “increase the cash-flow of farmers and reduce the administrative burden both for national and regional authorities and for farmers in these particularly challenging times”, a representative for the commission said in a statement this morning.
Farmers will start receiving these advances from mid-October. For additional flexibility, member states will be able to pay farmers before finalising all on-the-spot checks.
The second measure adopted today reduces the number of physical on-the-spot eligibility checks for the prevailing part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) budget from 5% to 3%.