ICOS: Proposed next CAP budget poses 'severe' risk for co-ops
Any cut to Ireland's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) allocation poses a "severe" risk to co-ops and could impact on jobs and investment, the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) has warned.
According to ICOS, CAP is "not merely a farm-support instrument".
"It is a rural economic stabiliser and job creation foundation for thousands of Irish people," the organisation, which respresents the co-op movement including marts and dairy co-ops, has stressed.
It said that under the EU's proposed CAP post-2027 - where Ireland’s CAP allocation could drop from appoximately €10.7 billion to closer to €8.16 billion - farm incomes would decline.
ICOS has warned that the proposed reduction in Ireland's CAP allocation "comes at precisely the time when the sector is being asked to meet significantly increased regulatory, environmental, and compliance demands".
"To ask co-ops and farmers to do more without providing stable, ring-fenced funding is neither equitable nor sustainable.
"It jeopardises not only incomes but also the long-term viability of cooperatives and the jobs they support," ICOS told a meeting of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
ICOS
ICOS also underlined that any redution in CAP funding for Ireland would significantly discourage young people and new entrants from entering farming.
The organisation told TDs and senators that "insufficient funding fails to remove barriers to entry such as high startup costs, limited access to land, and the investment required for sustainable farming practices".
"At the same time, the uncertainty caused by shifting policy priorities further deters young people from pursuing a career in agriculture," it added.
According to ICOS, the wider impact of a change to the CAP allocation in Ireland would not, in any event, be limited to just rural communities and farmers.
Members of the Oireachtas committees heard that beyond farm incomes and rural stores, the "impact of a weakened CAP reaches into the heart of Ireland’s co-operative sector and export led food industry".
"Ireland’s export led food industry thrives on the basis of a stable and predictable CAP-backed farming economy.
"The reduced funding and increased uncertainty under post-2027 CAP proposals threaten this stability.
"Lower farm incomes could impact milk and livestock supply, diminish demand for co-op services, and weaken the financial base required to service existing capital investments, much less undertake further development," it warned.
The bottom line, ICOS told TDs and senators, is that "the policy certainty that supports our export led food sector and farmer-owned dairy and mart co-ops is now at risk".
"Such a loss would have serious consequences for rural employment and community stability," it said.
