Northern Ireland’s agriculture industry has the tools and support in place to be able to thrive and prosper.”


Members of the Northern Ireland Aff airs Committ ee (NIAC) have been told that the agri-food sector is critical to the economy of Northern Ireland and to its rural communities. In addition, farming businesses are key employers in rural communities and are essential to sustaining local economies throughout the region. Farmers also play a vital role as stewards of the natural environment, maintaining areas of natural beauty and protecting landscapes and habitats that might otherwise come under threat.


Committ LAKELAND AND LACPATRICK AGREE MERGER


Courtesy of their recent special general meetings, shareholders of dairy processing co-operatives Lakeland Dairies and LacPatrick Dairies have voted resoundingly in favour of the merger of both societies. Lakeland shareholders met in County Cavan, and LacPatrick shareholders met in Cookstown, County Tyrone. The ballots of each society were conducted independently by the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS). The results confirmed that 97.24 percent of shareholders of Lakeland Dairies voted in favour of the merger, while 95.99 percent of shareholders of LacPatrick Dairies voted similarly.


“The shareholders of both societies have created a great good for co-operative dairy farming,” said Alo Duffy, chairman of Lakeland Dairies. “By combining our co-operatives and operations, we will continue our strong progress in a very meaningful way. The new society being formed through this merger will continue to be farmer owned and controlled, while paying a sustainable and competitive milk price in line with market conditions into the future.”


Andrew McConkey, chairman of LacPatrick Dairies, agreed. “By voting in favour of the merger, we are confident that both the LacPatrick and Lakeland shareholders have created a sustainable platform for dairy production in the northern half of the country,” McConkey said. “This will create stability, scale, efficiency and further added value for our milk producers, together with enhanced global market access for our high-quality dairy products.


Michael Hanley, CEO of Lakeland Dairies, has been named group CEO designate of the new society.


“Underpinned by the confidence shown by the members of each co- operative, the combined organisation will be a competitive, international dairy food business, which will work as a platform to secure the future of our dairy farmer members for generations to come,” said Hanley, adding, “It will deliver economies of scale and commercial synergies, processing increased volumes of milk and providing greater capability to address global customer needs for high-quality dairy food service, food ingredients and consumer products.”


Subject to the necessary regulatory approvals, it is envisaged that the merger will be completed by early 2019. The new society will adopt the name of Lakeland Dairies. With 3,200 suppliers, the merged co-operatives will process over 1.8 billion litres of milk annually and will have annual revenues of over €1 billion.


The combined organisation will have substantial cashflow to underpin the development of the business. It will also create efficiencies


across the organisation and its operations, which, in turn, will enhance the value and return from the merged societies for the benefit of milk producers.


IN MY OPINION … RICHARD HALLERON


It’s time to put the value of the single payment into context I am pretty sick and tired of environmental and conservation groups telling us all that we need a farm support system that takes more account of the so-called “public good,” when the reality is that we have one of these already in place: it’s called the basic — or single —payment scheme. Currently, groups of inspectors throughout the island of Ireland and Great Britain are charged with the responsibility of checking farmers’ compliance with all relevant EU directives, including the many environmental criteria associated with the single payment scheme. Over the past ten years, numerous bespoke environmental and conservation-related criteria have been built into this farm support measure — greening being the most obvious example that comes to mind.


In my opinion, this is actually a good news story for agriculture. Yes, producers do run the risk of receiving basic payment penalties, if their bookwork, etc., is not in order. But above all else, cross compliance and the associated inspection process can be used to show that farmers fully deserve the support monies they get from Brussels.


There is a common misconception that the single-farm payment system is simply a backdoor means of subsidising production agriculture. This is absolutely not the case. De-coupling broke the link between farm output and the payments received by way of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) back in 2003. So, in effect, farmers in Northern Ireland are being paid to maintain the highest possible environmental standards in the countryside.


The implication of all this is that consumers must be told in the clearest possible terms that their taxes are not being used to prop up a cheap food policy. And, as custodians of the countryside, farmers can argue in the strongest possible terms for the maintenance of a single payment system — even beyond the introduction of Brexit.


The reality is that we do have a beautiful countryside to enjoy. The landscape all around us today was created by generations of farmers. But it needs to be maintained. The single payment is not “money for nothing.” And this is a message that must be communicated to the public at large in the strongest possible terms.


Consumers should also be told that they are currently able to buy food at all-time-low prices. This has nothing at all to do with the basic payment support mechanism; rather, it is a policy driven by the U.K. and European supermarkets as they vie to secure the highest possible share of the “retail cake.” This is a policy that must change if the EU-27 and the U.K. want to maintain a viable agri-food sector into the future. No one really knows what Brexit will bring in terms of new farm support policies. But it will be an imperative for London to ensure that farmers throughout the U.K. — including Northern Ireland — receive the funding they need to maintain a countryside that everyone can enjoy. It goes without saying that the authorities in Dublin must take a


similar approach.


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Alltech.com/ireland AlltechNaturally @Alltech Sarney | Summerhill Road | Dunboyne | Co. Meath FEED COMPOUNDER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018 PAGE 23


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