From an Irish perspective, more needs to be done to help shift the British thinking towards the need to ensure they protect the value in their domestic market in any trade negotiations.
UK Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union David Davis and Michel Barnier, EU lead negotiator.
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The extent to which UK agriculture is not ready for Brexit really struck at the weekend when attending the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers conference in Leeds. I had been asked to give members an overview on the impact of Brexit on Irish agriculture and the need for Britain and Ireland to ensure the €1bn of trade that crisscrosses the Irish Sea each week is protected in any deal.
In spite of Brexit only being 17 months away, farmers remain in the dark as to what the future holds – in terms of supports and trading conditions. There remains a lot of wishful thinking and a level of naivety around the potential for British food post-Brexit to secure a foothold in premium global markets and for this to drive farmgate prices.
At best this is a five- to 10-year project and will do little to support market prices in 2019. Furthermore, it is interesting that one of the highest priced food markets in the world, with just 61% self-sufficiency, is placing such hope on global food exports to underpin farmgate prices.
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From an Irish perspective, more needs to be done to help shift UK thinking towards the need to ensure they protect the value in their domestic market in any trade negotiations, rather than being distracted by the promise of new markets.
UK farmers will be better off if their supply deficits are bridged with imports from countries with equivalent standards and similar cost-production systems, such as Ireland.
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The extent to which UK agriculture is not ready for Brexit really struck at the weekend when attending the Association of Independent Meat Suppliers conference in Leeds. I had been asked to give members an overview on the impact of Brexit on Irish agriculture and the need for Britain and Ireland to ensure the €1bn of trade that crisscrosses the Irish Sea each week is protected in any deal.
In spite of Brexit only being 17 months away, farmers remain in the dark as to what the future holds – in terms of supports and trading conditions. There remains a lot of wishful thinking and a level of naivety around the potential for British food post-Brexit to secure a foothold in premium global markets and for this to drive farmgate prices.
At best this is a five- to 10-year project and will do little to support market prices in 2019. Furthermore, it is interesting that one of the highest priced food markets in the world, with just 61% self-sufficiency, is placing such hope on global food exports to underpin farmgate prices.
From an Irish perspective, more needs to be done to help shift UK thinking towards the need to ensure they protect the value in their domestic market in any trade negotiations, rather than being distracted by the promise of new markets.
UK farmers will be better off if their supply deficits are bridged with imports from countries with equivalent standards and similar cost-production systems, such as Ireland.
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