Following a farm walk and informal talks with Chinese premier Li Keqiang and Irish Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney in Co Mayo on Sunday afternoon, An Taoiseach confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal that the initial informal talks were positive.
“The next thing is that the Chinese send over their assessors to assess our beef plants and we’ll hope that we have Irish beef over there by the end of the year,” An Taoiseach said.
Minister Coveney also said the farm walk was a very useful exercise.
ADVERTISEMENT
“The farm was the marketing opportunity (for Irish food),” the Minister said. “About 300m people in China will watch the footage from today so it’s a huge opportunity to sell Ireland as a place of clean, green food. That’s what we were looking to get out of today,” he added.
Minister Coveney said Ireland now has the trust of China as being a safe food producer.
“Our relationship with China is almost unique in Europe, there’s no other country that has that relationship. We’ve had five or six ministers (from China) here now talking about agriculture. They (China) see Ireland as probably the safest food producing country in the world and they’d be right to think that,” the Minister added.
Li Keqiang brought a delegation of ministers from his cabinet including his agriculture and foreign affairs ministers. The group were using Ireland as a stopover on their way to a state visit in Brazil.
Register for free to read this story and our free stories.
This content is available to digital subscribers and loyalty code users only. Sign in to your account, use the code or subscribe to get unlimited access.
The reader loyalty code gives you full access to the site from when you enter it until the following Wednesday at 9pm. Find your unique code on the back page of Irish Country Living every week.
CODE ACCEPTED
You have full access to the site until next Wednesday at 9pm.
CODE NOT VALID
Please try again or contact support.
Following a farm walk and informal talks with Chinese premier Li Keqiang and Irish Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney in Co Mayo on Sunday afternoon, An Taoiseach confirmed to the Irish Farmers Journal that the initial informal talks were positive.
“The next thing is that the Chinese send over their assessors to assess our beef plants and we’ll hope that we have Irish beef over there by the end of the year,” An Taoiseach said.
Minister Coveney also said the farm walk was a very useful exercise.
“The farm was the marketing opportunity (for Irish food),” the Minister said. “About 300m people in China will watch the footage from today so it’s a huge opportunity to sell Ireland as a place of clean, green food. That’s what we were looking to get out of today,” he added.
Minister Coveney said Ireland now has the trust of China as being a safe food producer.
“Our relationship with China is almost unique in Europe, there’s no other country that has that relationship. We’ve had five or six ministers (from China) here now talking about agriculture. They (China) see Ireland as probably the safest food producing country in the world and they’d be right to think that,” the Minister added.
Li Keqiang brought a delegation of ministers from his cabinet including his agriculture and foreign affairs ministers. The group were using Ireland as a stopover on their way to a state visit in Brazil.
If you would like to speak to a member of our team, please call us on 01-4199525.
Link sent to your email address
We have sent an email to your address. Please click on the link in this email to reset your password. If you can't find it in your inbox, please check your spam folder. If you can't find the email, please call us on 01-4199525.
ENTER YOUR LOYALTY CODE:
The reader loyalty code gives you full access to the site from when you enter it until the following Wednesday at 9pm. Find your unique code on the back page of Irish Country Living every week.
SHARING OPTIONS