EU
Agriculture Commissioner, Phil Hogan gave his first speech in Ireland following his
appointment as Commissioner on the subject of Food Production in Europe to the UCD Engineering Graduates Association
last Thursday night. He was followed in a Panel Presentation and Discussion by
IFA President, Eddie Downey, Director of UCD Institute of Food and Health, Professor
Dolores O’Riordan, NESC Director, Dr. Larry O’Connell and Glanbia Director of
Strategy, Sean Molloy. As the Commissioner’s full speech by video from Brussels and all of the
presentations are now on the EGA website, I will only briefly summarise what
they said below.
 |
|
Front row: PJ
Rudden EGA President, Prof Dolores O’Riordan Director of UCD Institute of
Food & Health, Prof Andrew Deeks UCD President and Dermot Ryan Cabinet Member to EU Commissioner Phil Hogan. Back row: Eddie Downey IFA President, Prof David Fitzpatrick UCD Dean of Engineering and Sean Molloy Director of Strategy, Glanbia. |
 |
| Prof
Colm O’Donnell UCD Head of Biosystems Engineering School on Food Science Research in UCD. |
Commissioner
Hogan outlined the scale of the challenge facing us 'to feed 9 billion people
by 2050 world agricultural production will have to exceed its 2005 by 60%. There
are also rising public expectations in the EU accompanied by issues of safety,
quality, value, traceability and diversity of food...there are also serious
strains on natural resources and the environment resulting from recent gains in
food production. There are also concerns
on climate change....the challenge we face is to increase productivity based on
a finite resource such as land so we need to do more with less' he said 'all of
this must be achieved with limited public support in the wake of the financial
crisis and a growing social pressure to justify maintaining such a large share
of the EU budget for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). To address this the
current time restrictions on production will end. The current restrictions on
sugar production will end in 2017 and milk quotas will end next Spring. In the
coming months I will be keeping a close eye on rural development programmes for
investments, business startups and local development in rural areas'.
'The
Commission will work to opening up new markets. In Ireland our recovery has
been driven by food exports particularly in the Agrifood sector. In 2013 alone
63,000 new jobs were created in Ireland and agriculture forestry and fisheries
contributed 30% of these. The EU is
adapting well to the Russian Food Embargo helped by the new EU Research and Innovation
Fund to allow the farm sector to adapt new trends and become more resource
efficient. 2015 will be a turning point
for the dairy sector. Medium term
prospects are favourable driven by a steady world demand. The main driver will
be demand for increased proteins by middle class households worldwide. The main challenge
for the sector will be market volatility. There may be oversupply at times as
at present’ he said.
 |
|
EU
Commissioner Hogan addresses the UCD EGA Panel Discussion from Brussels. |
It
was a thoughtful speech addressing the key challenges up front and setting out
an agenda to ensure that EU Agriculture will remain a competitive, efficient
and sustainable sector. We are most grateful to the Commissioner for giving his
time for this Keynote Speech as he faces into his new role. The Commissioner’s Speech was beamed to us
from Brussels due to unforeseen circumstances as he could not be with us in
person. His full speech is available
here on the homepage of the EGA website.
In addition, he sent one of the Senior Cabinet Members, Dermot Ryan to
be here in UCD in person and to respond to the Q&A.
 |
| EU
Cabinet Member Dermot Ryan responds to questions on behalf of the EU Commissioner Hogan. |
Following the Commissioner, IFA President,
Eddie Downey addressed the challenges to food production as the IFA see
it. Over 300,000 individuals are
employed in farming, the agri-food sector and related service sectors. Farming
underpins economic activity across all parts of the country, and has a
particularly important role to play in the economic recovery outside of the
main urban areas. Agri-food exports have grown by almost 50% in the last five
years, and in 2014, with further growth of 8%, will exceed €10.5b. Underpinning the agri-food sector is the
primary agriculture sector. This remains a low-income sector, with average farm
income in 2013 of €25,000.
 |
|
Eddie Downey IFA President outlines the IFA position on future food challenges. |
2014 has been a particularly difficult year
for beef producers, as evidenced by the anger and frustration expressed by
farmers at the countrywide beef protests of recent weeks. Since August there
has been a strengthening of prices in Ireland’s main export market the UK, as
evidenced by the increased price paid to UK producers. There has also been an
increase in the price consumers are paying for beef products, both in Ireland
and the UK. However, this has not been passed back to farmers, who are
supplying a high quality premium product.
The future of beef production in Ireland is far from certain unless
there is a viable price returned to the primary producer. In 2013, the average
income for cattle farmers ranged from €9,500 for suckler farmers to €15,500 for
beef finishers. This is clearly an unsustainable and unviable return for
farmer’s labour and investment.
The abolition of the milk quota provides,
for the first time in a generation, dairy farmers with the opportunity to
increase production and scale. Our grass-based production system has the
potential to increase output by 50% over the coming decade, contributing to
economic growth through increased employment and export earnings.
The expansion of the dairy herd will result
in an increase in dairy beef production. I believe we will see diversification
within some beef enterprises whereby there will be movement towards supporting
other production systems, through rearing of dairy herd replacements. There is a critical need for all
stakeholders to engage to manage the dairy expansion, its impact on land use
and the changes that will affect the beef industry. Support for the suckler beef herd must remain
a priority; however there must also be a coherent plan to adapt to the changes
in the supply of beef that will arise due to the expansion of the dairy herd.
There are many reasons to be positive for
the future of food production in Ireland. However, we must work to firstly
identify and then tackle the challenges, whether in the market place or due to
policy decisions, that will undermine the potential of the primary agriculture
sector. It is in all of our interests, both economically and socially, that
Ireland has a viable and growing farming sector, underpinning a world class
agri-food industry.
.JPG) |
| Eddie
Downey IFA President, Prof Dolores O’Riordan UCD Professor of Food and Health and PJ Rudden EGA President. |
There
then followed a very interesting presentation on Food Manufacture by UCD
Professor Dolores O'Riordan Director of the UCD Institute of Food and Health.
Dolores set out the global challenges to ensure 'healthy, tasty, affordable and
safe foods with consumer appeal balancing health and sensory attributes'.
The
practical design approach is based mostly on 'clustered dietary advice' while
'safety is a prerequisite for healthy foods' she said and illustrated that a
long food chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The food chain is
therefore only as secure as the standards of the weakest supplier'.
Prevention
of contamination is critical together with traceability and authenticity with
increased need for real- and rapid time detection. There is need for a holistic
approach to provide healthy solutions across all life-stages. We need to
shorten our food chains, enhance consumer communications and understanding.
 |
|
Prof Dolores
O’Riordan on food science and technology challenges.
|
‘With
the world population set to increase to almost nine billion by 2050, coupled
with an estimated 6˚C rise in temperature based on current energy usage and CO2
emissions, the planet faces food shortages on a major scale unless we make
changes now’ he said.
'We
need a guiding vision towards a carbon neutral society based on an approach to
economic development that is socially and environmentally sustainable' he said
and pointed to the leadership shown towards the 2030 goals for climate and
energy in Brussels in October 2014 by the European Heads of State Agreement.
 |
| Dr Larry O’Connell NESC on climate change challenges of food production. |
Sean Molloy's presentation traced the
development of Glanbia to become a global player in nutrition and food
ingredients with a 2013 revenue of €3.3billion and 5,200 employees across some
29 countries and 130 export markets.
Glanbia is number 1 Irish diary
processor, number 1 European producer of enriched milk powders and number 3
indigenous Irish exporter. They collect milk through Leinster and East Munster
from Dundalk to Cork substantially. Five processing centres are Virginia, Ballyragget,
Wexford, Belview and Carrick-on-Suir.
 |
|
Sean Molloy
Glanbia Director of Strategy on global market challenges.
|
Internationally Glanbia have a global reach through Europe Middle East China Japan North and West Africa US Mexico and North West countries of South America. Well known world brands include Kerrygold butter, Kilmeaden cheese, Baileys Irish Cream, SMA baby food and Walker biscuits.
A long term growth in dairy products
worldwide of 2.3% per annum is predicted with growing urbanisation,
Westernisation of diet and a growing global middle class. There needs to be
forensic attention to quality and supply chain integrity in terms of food
safety while market volatility remains another major challenge.
Glanbia is focussed on tackling the
critical global issues for customers - volatility, supply security, quality
assurance, brand protection and sustainability.
There is a necessary focus on innovation from pre-cow to
post-customer. Sean quoted Winston Churchill in this regard 'The empires of the
future are the empires of the mind'.
 |
|
Panel
responds to Q & A
|
A
lively Question and Answer followed led by Dermot Ryan Cabinet Member to
Commissioner Hogan. He displayed his total grasp of the EU Agriculture brief
and indeed was well known and respected by all the Panel Speakers from his
previous work in the Irish Department of Agriculture and on CAP Reform during the
Irish Presidency in 2013.
This
was a remarkable event which could have occupied a full or half day conference.
It was also noteworthy how the challenges mentioned by the Commissioner had
resonance in the presentations of all of the Panel Speakers showing that in this area
of public policy at least the main players are agreed on the problems and on
the possible solutions for the future benefit of Ireland and of the EU. It also showed a EU Commissioner who is superbly on top of his brief even after a few weeks in office.
 |
|
UCD President
Andrew Deeks thanks EU Commissioner Hogan,
Cabinet Member Dermot Ryan and Speaker Panel. |
The
event concluded by UCD President Andrew Deeks who thanked the Commissioner,
Cabinet Member Dermot Ryan and the Speaker Panel for a superb evening focussed
on the challenges of food production in Europe.
He undertook to ensure that UCD will continue to be a world class centre
of excellence for Food Research.
 |
|
Ciaran Dolan
Agrifood Consultant, National Statistics Board (Former Secretary ICMSA),
Paul Kelly Director Food and Drink Industry, IBEC and Aidan Cotter CEO An Bord Bia. |
 |
|
PJ Rudden EGA
President, John Stack ex CEO Murphy Group, Louise McGuinness
and Killian McKenna EGA Board Members, Domhnall Blair EGA Member. |
 |
| Eoin
Gill Lecturer Waterford Institute of Technology, PJ Rudden EGA President, Prof Andrew Deeks UCD President, Ryan Byrne PM Group, Martin Hogan EPA Advisory Committee and Mary Anne Carrigan Editor Engineers Journal. |
