The forum, organised by the Agricultural Science Association, heard that the negotiation of any bilateral trade agreements are highly unlikely and that the current scattergun approach from trade organisations, lobby groups and Government will not work in stabilising the Irish economy in the wake of Brexit.

The event featured a panel discussion with contributions from John Moloney, chair, Food Wise 2025; Lucinda Creighton, founder of political party Renua, from EU advisory company Vulcan Consulting, Jim Power, economist, and Joe Healy, IFA president. The panel agreed that as a result of Brexit, Ireland is currently in “unchartered waters” and that the agri-food sector was “by far the most exposed sector”.

Turbulent EU political environment

Creighton highlighted that Brexit is further complicated by an increasingly turbulent EU political environment with upcoming elections in France and Germany and that Ireland lacked a coordinated message to the EU: “The feedback I get from Europe is that Ireland is more active than any other country, that we have lobby groups going over from all sectors but they are getting different messages from everybody and they don’t know what Ireland wants and what our end game is. It is still totally unclear as to what we as a country are proposing and this needs to be defined and communicated as a matter of urgency.”

The Government urgently needs to re-prioritise its Food Wise 2025 implementation plan

The ambitious targets set out under Food Wise 2025 were questioned and the panel agreed that they were still achievable in principal, but that the industry must look at new ways of getting there.

John Moloney, chair of Food Wise 2025, said: “The fact is that all the capacity and capability outlined in Food Wise 2025 still exists but the issue is what markets we are going to focus on. It is important that Government, who endorsed Food Wise 2025, immediately and urgently re-prioritise its implementation plan in order to support businesses in targeting new markets.”

Call to revise Food Wise 2025

One of the conclusions in the recent report on Brexit commissioned by the Oireachtas agriculture committee called for a review of the Food Wise 2025 targets.

However, in one of his editorials this week, Irish Farmers Journal editor Justin McCarthy said that downgrading the targets set under Food Wise 2025 would be a ”cop-out”.

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