The food and drink industry must become more market ready and produce for a customer instead of continually putting product onto a market, according to Chairman of the Northern Ireland Food and Drink Association (NIFDA) Dr David Dobbin.

Speaking at the NIFDA annual dinner in Belfast last night, the United Dairy Farmers Chief Executive said: “If we are to win through in this very difficult environment of intense price competition of falling returns, we must up our game.”

Dobbin told delegates that the industry must take opportunities to improve competiveness and win more business. “We must avoid the temptation to sit back and wait for the market to improve,” he said.

Dobbin stated that oversupply of commodities on a global market against demand has led to the current downward pressure on prices that will continue into 2016. Good weather leading to bumper harvests, falling demand in China, the Russian trade embargo and low oil prices were all mentioned.

He added that rapid commodity inflation may occur if OPEC countries get put out of the market by continued falling oil prices due mainly to shale gas production in USA, however.

Island food

Dobbin said that being situated on an island can make increase the cost of getting products to market. However, he added: “Our island status also provides a fantastic natural barrier for us to control the flow of raw materials and prevent disease.”

Dobbin said that, following a lack a progress of developing a new marketing and promotion body for NI food and drink since it was originally announced by former Enterprise and Trade Minister Arlene Foster in March, the Agri-Food Strategy Board (AFSB) and NIFDA have agreed this week to push forward and recruit a chief executive who will be financed by the two organisations.

“We need to see the body in action quickly and we need to encourage government to work with us to make this happen,” he said.

As a lobbying body NIFDA is working on its manifesto ahead of the Assembly elections next year. According to Dobbin, points that the organisation will be pressing politicians to act on include keeping tax costs down, increasing marketing activities, product innovation and improving education and training.