Planning for Brexit remains a weekly event, according to Ornua CEO John Jordan.

Speaking on an Ireland INC webinar, Jordan said that he couldn’t imagine the chief negotiators “Barnier and Gove have managed to negotiate a free trade agreement over Zoom”.

He pointed out the crucial nature of trade between Ireland and the UK and added “please God there’ll be an extension [to Brexit negotiations]”.

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COVID-19

When asked how Ornua had dealt with tumult caused by COVID-19, he gave the example of cheese supplied to the UK market.

Jordan said that over 40% of the privately packaged cheese in the UK comes from Ornua and when panic buying kicked in in the UK, they discussed options with all their customers.

He said they supplied 60 products to their largest UK customer, but prioritised just 20 products to keep up with consumer demand and keep products on the shelves.

Looking forward at the impact of the pandemic on the American market, he said he didn’t want to sound “mercenary”, but the economic shakeup for some companies might mean that there were future “acquisition opportunities there” for Ornua.

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