Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) Martin Heydon has stressed the importance of sustainability in Irish agri-food export markets.
The minister was speaking at the Agriculture and Climate Change: Science in Action conference taking place in the Aviva Stadium today (Wednesday, November 15).
Over 500 delegates from across the agri-food sector are attending the event to hear the latest science and policy developments relating to agriculture and climate change.
Sustainability
When asked by Agriland about environmental concerns about the emissions created by Irish agri-food exports, Minister Heydon, who has responsibility for new market development, said:
“We’re opening more markets to open more opportunities for Irish food companies to have more access and routes to market.
“That doesn’t mean we fill every single market we open, but we do that to give us the greatest breadth of opportunities to reach the highest value markets that will ultimately give the best return to our farmers.
“All of those higher value markets are talking about sustainability as a higher level of priority now,” he added.
“That’s why I say its a smart business play here, not just for the environment for what we do but for farmers to position themselves to have an improving story around the emission profile for our food production system.
“It does matter, it does carry weight. It very much aligns with our 10-year strategy in the department of agriculture, Food Vision 2030, that looks at sustainability in all its forms,” Heydon said.
The minister noted that Ireland is seeking to “ramp up the value of our exports, rather than the quantity”, which he believes will give a better return to “everyone along the food chain”.
China
Meanwhile, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue told Agriland that work is continuing to reopen the Chinese market to Irish beef imports.
The DAFM confirmed last week that Irish beef exports to China were suspended after tests confirmed a case of atypical BSE.
The case involving a 10-and-a-half-year-old cow was identified during the department’s ongoing systematic surveillance of fallen animals at knackeries.
The animal did not enter the food or feed chain and there are no public health risks associated with this occurrence.
However, the Chinese protocol requires the immediate suspension of export certification once there is any case of BSE, even atypical.
“Obviously it was a disappointment, the case, but it is really important to point out that it is something that happens sporadically in bovines. We had a similar case back in 2020,” Minister McConalogue said.
“The one market out of our 70 markets that is affected by this is the Chinese market. Obviously, that’s a disappointment because we see lots of potential in terms of growing that [market] and we were building momentum in relation to it as well,” he said.
He noted that the Chinese market is currently very small in terms of overall Irish beef exports, accounting for around 0.5% of global exports.
The minister reiterated that Ireland went through a lengthy process to re-establish market access to China.
Beef shipments from Ireland to China had only resumed in January, after they had previously been suspended in May 2020, following the confirmation by DAFM of “an isolated case of atypical BSE”.
“We’re hopefully that we will be able to get a much more prompt re-entry to the market and restart of the market than what happened on the first occasion. But that’s a matter for the Chinese authorities.
“We will be engaging with them in every way we can to make sure that everything is done to try and get it reopened as quickly as possible,” the minister said.