Developing a bioeconomy using the byproducts of the agriculture sector is both a “climate solution and commercial opportunity”, according to the director of Dairy Industry Ireland (DII).
Both DII and Meat Industry Ireland (MII) co-organised an event yesterday (Tuesday, June 13) in Dublin to discuss the potential for the development of a bioeconomy sector in Ireland.
The event saw contributions from agri-food businesses that are taking steps in that area, including Dawn Meats and Carbery group.
Representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine were also in attendance, as well as other figures from the business representative and lobby group Ibec (of which DII and MII are members), and representatives from the Irish Co-Operative Organisation Society (ICOS).
Speaking to Agriland at the event yesterday, DII director Conor Mulvihill described the bioeconomy sector as “an enormous opportunity”.
“We have to shift the food industry and farming towards a solution in the carbon challenge we have and the GHG [greenhouse gas] challenge we have, and we want to be at the start of a solution, rather than being pointed at as a problem, which has been there,” Mulvihill commented.
“The bioeconomy, I think, is a golden opportunity for farmers, the food processing industry and co-operatives to grip, so hopefully today was a step forward on that,” he added.
However, a cohesive policy from government is one prerequisite to developing the bioeconomy that is not there at present, Mulvihill said.
“At the moment, what we’re having is one arm of government saying we should protect native industry, and we’re overly dependent on foreign direct investment for taxes, etc; and on the other hand we’re hearing these papers on reduction of cow herds and things like that.
“So we want things like policy coherence, and that’s why it was very important not just to have the meat industry here but the wider food industry…and ICOS, in terms of that co-operative piece, and to have the department and research centres,” he said.
Mulvihill went on: “We want a whole-of-government approach, a whole-of-sector approach, otherwise we’ll all fall. So one word, collaboration, will move it on.
“We have the best place on the planet to create the lowest carbon intensity dairy, the lowest carbon intensity meat, which is great, but that carbon intensity is there.
“So if there’s anything that comes off in terms of a waste stream, we have to look at the opportunities, and I think the Carbery examples and the Dawn Meats examples that we put on there today show there’s not only a climate solution there, but there is also a commercial opportunity for both farming and the industry, so let’s grasp it,” the DII director added.