Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue, as well as the chief executives of both Ornua and Bord Bia, will address the AGM of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) this week.
The AGM will take place this Thursday (December 3) via an online conference platform, with the ‘housekeeping’ and the association’s accounts for the year taking up the first part of the meeting, between 10:30am and 11:45am.
At midday, ICMSA president Pat McCormack will speak, followed by Minister McConalogue.
From that time, two other guest speakers will speak on the topic of the ‘Food Market post-Brexit and Covid’.
John Jordan, chief executive of Ornua, will speak first, to be followed by Tara McCarthy, Chief Executive of Bord Bia.
There will then be further questions from ICMSA members, with that section scheduled to end at around 2:00pm.
ICMSA disputes An Taisce comments
In other ICMSA-related news, the association has hit out at comments made by a representative of An Taisce in relation to a joint development involving Glanbia.
Denis Drennan, the ICMSA farm and rural affairs chairperson, labelled as “unfair” the comments from the An Taisce representative, who spoke last week on Newstalk.
According to Drennan, the An Taisce spokesperson claimed that the Dutch cheese maker in the joint development with Glanbia was locating the development in Ireland in order to get around water quality laws in the Netherlands.
“I am sure that An Taisce did not mean to suggest that this was the reason behind the joint venture,” Drennan said, arguing that the impetus behind the investment is “the need to respond to Brexit” and switch emphasis from cheddar manufacturing.