Andrew Doyle TD could join the race for Europe

The widely reported interest of John Bryan, Fine Gael in-running IFA president, as a Fine Gael candidate for Ireland South in next year’s elections to the European Parliament could face an unexpected challenge. My sources in Fine Gael tell me that Wicklow TD Andrew Doyle has let it be known to party bosses that he is ‘seriously interested’ in being a candidate.

The chairman of the Oireachtas Agriculture committee’s geographical base in the extreme east is not ideal, but Sean Kelly is in the extreme west of the 10 county constituency.

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Many would see him as one of those most hard done by in being excluded from the Ministerial office, so his interest in a possible switch to Europe is not surprising.

Gorta and Self Help Africa in merger talks

I understand that merger talks are set to get underway between Gorta and Self Help Africa, two of the leading Third World charities based in Ireland.

Both organisations have strong links with the agriculture sector in Ireland. The acting chief executive of Gorta is Tom Kirley, formerly of Teagasc. Meanwhile, Self Help Africa is chaired by former Glanbia chairman Tom Corcoran.

Pallas parent gets US rival

‘If you can’t beat them, buy them’, this appears to be the policy of US food giant Sysco.

In Ireland, the US firm has over the past four years bought Pallas Foods, Crossgar Foods and Keelings Food service. Now they are buying one of their biggest rivals, privately held US Foods, in a deal valued at around $8bn in cash and stock. When the deal closes, Sysco expects the addition of US Foods to boost its annual sales by about 46%, to a staggering $65bn.

For the year that ended in June, Sysco’s sales totalled $44.41bn. It trucks food and cooking supplies to about 425,000 customers through 193 locations in the U.S., Bahamas, Canada, Ireland and Northern Ireland.

New Job coming up in Volac

I see that Volac have branched out into the silage additive market with the acquisition of Ecosyl, a brand which was very popular here some years ago. They seem keen to revitalise it in the Republic by recruiting a forage specialist to manage the 32 counties as it is still very popular in Northern Ireland.