Next CAP has to reward the people doing the work – Gorman

IFA president Francie Gorman has said that if we are going to be serious about the next generation coming home to farm, then people doing the work have to be rewarded.

Speaking at the Irish Farmers Journal’s beef markets information meeting on Monday night, Gorman spoke about how CAP is going to be a huge topic over the coming months.

“In 2026 we have the presidency of the European Union and we expect to see agreement on the budget in the latter half of the year. We expect to see a lot of progress made on the CAP,” he stated.

The IFA president made it clear what the IFA wants to see in the next CAP in terms of active farmers.

“In a nutshell, we want to see the people farming the land, calving the cow, lambing the ewe, growing the grain, milking the cow, rewarded in the next CAP.”

He said active farmers who are doing the work must be the ones rewarded in order to attract young people into the sector.

“Unfortunately for the last 20 years the Common Agricultural Policy and the European Union have not done that.”

Gorman also said that he has spoken to four major meat processors over recent weeks and made it clear to them that at the current prices “we are not going to have a winter finishing sector at less than €7/kg.”

He said beef factories must support winter finishers.