Holding onto the existing CAP funding is without doubt the biggest challenge for Irish agriculture within the CAP budget discussions that have just started, according to Department of Agriculture Assistant General Secretary Brendan Gleeson, speaking in Cork this week.

Gleeson was speaking at the Spring Dairy Technology conference in University College Cork. He said: “Given the UK put €10bn into the European budget and, of that, €4bn goes into CAP, we need to ensure the proportions do not diminish.

“We have Eastern Europe looking for increased funding, funding calls for more research, innovation, employment issues, etc. So our first port of call will be to maintain what we have in terms of the budget, and we can argue how to sort it out after that.” The dairy industry in Ireland has changed dramatically and will change even more in coming years, according to Gleeson.

Standing by the decision to create the Food Harvest 2020 document, Gleeson said: “The State doesn’t produce milk, but we need to put a framework in place to allow others produce milk. We have a different model of milk production here in Ireland, and commercially we need to shift more into value added.

“We have obligations now that we have to meet, and policy needs to shift into how do we meet our obligations. Environmental sustainability affects people here in Ireland, and we need to consider the global challenge to other people. Within the market, we need to develop a brand image and that is Origin Green.”

Gleeson predicted that Irish milk production forecast for 2017 was 7.2bn tonnes, and he also emphasised that the production model is sustainable because of the large volume increases seen when milk price was low.

While accepting it wasn’t pain free for some farmers, he said there is an underlying optimism in the sector, and while Irish milk production is increasing, it is still only 4% of EU output and 1% of global output.

Responding to how the Department of Agriculture is reacting to price volatility, he said this was done primarily through the direct payments system and a whole host of other financial regulatory mechanisms, like the Crisis Reserve fund, Intervention, Aids to Private Storage, etc. He also mentioned the €150m loan fund used for low-interest rate loans that possibly highlighted a failure in the banking system but also positivity about investing in dairy farming.

Dairygold up 70%

Head of sales and marketing at Dairygold Mark Keller also spoke at the Dairy Technology conference. He suggested that the Dairygold vision for 2025 is that milk supply processed will have grown by 70% off the base year in 2014, and so far Dairygold was on track to complete this.

The challenge for Keller and his team is to sell this into high-value and growing markets. Keller talked about the various global Dairygold markets and the fact they have just opened an office in Beijing.

He talked about the challenge of the route to market and the image of Ireland abroad. Keller said he spent a lot of the last quarter in Asia and the influence of exchange rate fluctuations, energy price volatility, geopolitical challenges and climate all now influence how products are valued and sold.

Keller talked about the protein bars fighting for space in service stations, that “premiumisation” is the challenge and that the consumer was looking for value.

He said: “Lifestyle and food choice are often very closely linked, and the opportunity for Dairygold and others is to find space in an already congested market. The other big change happening globally is the aging population, and a certain type of food health required to bring technology to life.”