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WITHDRAWAL AGREEMENT NECESSARY TO AVOID ‘DISASTROUS CLIFF-EDGE BREXIT’


Feed Trade Topics from the Island of Ireland in a 11.2 percent increase in the cost of inputs.


Irish Farmers Association (IFA) President Joe Healy has confirmed that the agreement between the EU27 and the UK, which was endorsed at the special European Council meeting in Brussels, is critically important for the orderly withdrawal of the UK from the EU on March 29. Speaking in Brussels following a briefing by EU Chief Negotiator Michel Barnier to COPA-COGECA, Healy said: “IFA regards Brexit as a retrograde step for Europe and for Britain, and the fact that it has taken two and a half years since the June 2016 referendum to hammer out the withdrawal deal demonstrates that there are no easy solutions,” Healy said. “There is no alternative deal possible, and a no- deal, cliff-edge Brexit next March would be disastrous for Irish, British and European farmers.” Healy said he endorsed the strong statement by the presidents of the four farming unions in the UK supporting the withdrawal agreement.


The special EU summit signed off on both the withdrawal agreement, which is the draft divorce treaty setting out the terms of the UK’s withdrawal, and the political declaration on the future relationship between the EU and the UK, describing aspirations on both sides to partner closely across trade and economic cooperation and in the area of security. “The critical elements of the withdrawal agreement for the Irish farming and food sector are the transition period — which means no change to trading conditions until Dec. 31, 2020, at the earliest — and the backstop, which is an insurance policy to ensure no hard border on the island of Ireland,” said Healy.


The IFA president also stressed that opponents of the deal have thus far failed to put forward any credible alternative that would guarantee no hard border in Ireland.


Also of import is that the political declaration calls for an ambitious EU-UK partnership going forward. However, as Healy stated, “The UK’s determination to leave the single market and pursue an independent trade policy is regrettable because it will inevitably lead to costly checks and controls on trade, which will damage both Irish farmers and food exporters and their counterparts in the UK.


“Irish farmers’ interests lie in maintaining full access and frictionless trade, both north-south and east-west between Ireland and Britain, while retaining the full value of the UK market,” Healy concluded.


IRISH FARM INCOME FIGURES CONFIRM £450-MILLION HIKE IN FEED COSTS


Commenting on the advance estimates of the output, input and income for Irish agriculture in 2018, Pat McCormack, president of Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA), said that the 16.8 percent reduction in operating surplus highlights how exceptionally difficult this year was for farmers — particularly the severe weather conditions that resulted


PAGE 24 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019 FEED COMPOUNDER


“In terms of financial impact on farmers, the figures are catastrophic and show the cost of feed increasing by €450 million and fertiliser by €60 million,” said McCormack. “Those figures speak for themselves, and from the perspective of our dairy farmer membership, we have to factor in the €122 million reduction in the value of milk production to get an even more accurate idea of the challenge that Irish farming faced this year. “The figures are frightening, but it’s the underlying message that’s more important,” McCormack continued. “Our farming sector is completely exposed to abuse by links further along the supply chain and to extreme weather, with the result that farm income can fluctuate wildly from year to year. We desperately and obviously need measures that can address that destructive cycle — and a proven solution, the Farm Management Deposit Scheme, was offered to the government well in time for budget 2019, which they astonishingly overlooked.


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“Farmers seem to have been abandoned to wild price and income volatility on both the input and output sides, with only slow and tentative moves to stop their already low margins being eroded further by both processing and retail corporations,” McCormack concluded. “It must be obvious to everyone looking at Irish farmers having to pay more than half a billion Euros in extra costs in just this year that this can’t go on and must lead to radical and long-overdue measures to tackle this completely unsustainable income volatility.”


AURIVO ANNOUNCES MAJOR INVESTMENT PLAN The Aurivo co-op is investing €26 million to install a new milk dryer at the Ballaghaderreen site in County Roscommon. The development will create a modern, state-of-the-art production facility that will boost capacity at the facility by 50 percent. Once complete, over 50,000 tonnes of milk powders and 15,000 tonnes of butter will be produced there each year. The move is part of a wider €48-million, five-year capital investment programme by Aurivo, designed to enable innovative new product development and further position the organisation to meet global demand and anticipated market growth.


“With a strong commitment to both our suppliers and our customers, not only will these enhanced facilities in Ballaghderreen assist us in our ongoing support for them, but it will mean the organisation is better placed to access new international markets,” said Aaron Forde, CEO of Aurivo. “We have set a strategic target to grow by 25 percent, from a 400-million-litre-per-year milk business to a 500-million one, by 2022. This development will help us to realise that ambition.”


RANK-AND-FILE MEMBERS SUPPORT UFU’S BREXIT POLICY


The grassroots membership of the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) supports the organisation’s current Brexit policy, according to the organisation’s


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