The NI agri-food industry needs to be well represented by politicians and civil servants during UK withdrawal negotiations from the EU, Tony O’Neill, chair of the Agri-Food Strategy Board, said last week.

Speaking at an event on the implications of Brexit organised by the SDLP in Cookstown, O’Neill outlined a fear that agri-food could be put in the “too difficult box” given that it has many and varied sub sectors and interests.

Instead, other industries such as financial services could take priority in trade deal negotiations.

He warned that the government should not forget about UK food security by relying on cheap food imports as food exporting countries with growing populations may eventually reduce exports or decide to trade with other countries instead.

“The standard we apply compared to some of our competition is completely different and it is important that people understand that,” O’Neill said.

He added that the effect of trade barriers and tariffs in the EU is worth £2/kg on the price of beef and that farmers here could not compete if these were removed.

On a post-Brexit UK domestic agricultural policy, O’Neill said: “The UK government has never supported agri-food in 40 years. The likelihood of them supporting it in the future is interesting, certainly not reliable.”

He pointed out that if the current proportion of UK CAP funding was levelled across the UK in a domestic policy, then NI farmers would lose £96m and that the likelihood of the UK government allowing NI to maintain a larger proportion was “pretty remote”.

That could potentially lead to a restructuring of the local farming industry. “I believe that we will be better after this. The issue will be the ten years that it will take to get there,” he said.

Withdrawal

The consensus from speakers at the event was that withdrawal negotiations would take longer than the minimum two-year period from the triggering of Article 50 with some suggesting it could be closer to 10 years.

“There are 300 trade deal negotiators in Brussels.

‘‘You could count on one hand the number of trade deal negotiators in London,” said O’Neill.

That uncertainty is already influencing decision-making within agri-food companies.

As an example, the Dunbia deputy chief said that his own company has looked at increasing processing capacity for lamb in NI in case tariffs are applied on the 350,000 lambs that are exported to the Republic of Ireland annually.

Meanwhile, the British farm consultancy Andersons organised a Brexit seminar in London this week. Listen to the firm's Richard King's views on the future of trade between the UK and the EU in our podcast below: