The first meeting of the Bord Bia Farmer Forum took place this week, bringing together 100 representatives from the farming sector.

The Farmer Forum was set up in the wake of the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) protests earlier in the year relating to Bord Bia chairperson Larry Murrin.

According to the manager of the Farmer Forum, Niamh Bambrick, the discussions on Monday (June 29) focused on "three key themes", namely Bord Bia’s role; farm assurance schemes; and market promotion and development.

According to Bambrick - a former president the Agricultural Science Association (ASA) and former chairperson of Kilkenny Macra - the forum meeting "spent almost four hours discussing these topics, with participants sharing a wide range of perspectives and practical suggestions".

Bord Bia has said that the list of participants in the forum cannot be published due to data protection reasons.

However, Bord Bia posted a number of videos on its social media, with some participants giving their views of the forum and its role.

One such individual was Henry Corbally, a former vice-chairperson of the National Dairy Council, former chairperson of Meath Irish Farmers' Association (IFA), and former board member of the old Glanbia Co-op.

Speaking after the meeting, Corbally commented: "I think it was an excellent discussion here today. I think there was a huge awareness among all present that there is a vital need for quality assurance standards, for quality assurance inspections.

"As usual with all these events, the agenda seemed to drift around to all kinds of things, like the current price, and people’s individual take on things, but at the same time, when it was all boiled down, the farmers appreciate the work that Bord Bia do. They understand that it's absolutely necessary for us in international markets," Corbally added.

He said that there is "a bit of a disconnect" between farmers, processors and Bord Bia's work, and that "there isn't terrible much farmers can do about that".

"That's the problem that farmers will always and have always faced," Corbally said.

He added: "But there is an awareness here today that I think we're all working to the same end; that's the promotion of our products internationally, and I think the forum was a good idea, and I think we needed a little bit of this to clear the air on some stuff that has happened over the last number of months.

"It's been a very worthwhile exercise, and I'm delighted to be here," Corbally added.

Farmer Forum

The Bord Bia Farmer Forum is supported by a committee of 15 members who also participate in the forum.

Twelve of those were nominated by six farming organisations, namely the Irish Grain Growers (IGG); the IFA; the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers' Association (INHFA); Macra; the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association (ICMSA); and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA).

The committee also includes farmers without any specific affiliations who were chosen from the application pool to address sectoral gaps in the committee membership, Bord Bia said.

The Irish food board said that, to choose other members of the forum, it created a model to randomly select farmers based upon several categories, including age, farm size, region, gender, and farm type.

Bord Bia said that the numbers per category were "broadly representative" of the Bord Bia Quality Assurance database.

For example, as beef farmers are the largest category in QA schemes, more beef farmers were selected.

"Once the model had selected farmers and growers, a final check was conducted to ensure they were currently certified. Applicants were not asked if they were members of a farm organisation," Bord Bia said.