Irish wheat and barley yields are among the highest in the world, yet year on year the acreage is slipping and the proportion of Irish cereals used in animal feed rations and cereal-based products is becoming lower and lower. So what is going on?

The new report on behalf of Tillage Industry Ireland, compiled by Prof of Agricultural Economics in UCD, Michael Wallace, goes into it in some detail on pages 34 and 35, but a few standout points emerge.

Both the Irish sugar beet industry and the Irish flour milling industry are gone. The contribution of the sector is still substantial in terms of economic activity, employment and output. There are two core questions. Why has the acreage continued to slide and is there potential to develop premium markets for Irish products produced from Irish tillage crops?

The slide in acreage has been real and continuous. Nobody is suggesting we go back to a policy of total self-sufficiency but it is reasonable to pinpoint clear handicaps imposed on Irish producers vis-à-vis their competitors. A key one is the constant erosion of the technical inputs allowed to Irish and European producers while imports using these banned inputs are allowed freely to be used as animal feed on Irish and EU farms. This can only be solved at EU level, as can the extraordinary ban on any modern plant breeding technology which has been so beneficial to producers of maize and soya beans and oilseed rape outside Europe.

A major study into amending the legislation in this area has been launched but how long will it take for EU action? From a specific Irish viewpoint, it is clearly an anomaly that whiskey branded and marketed as Irish can be produced with French maize. There is little prospect of French champagne being produced with Irish or even German grapes. Some of these designations and marketing descriptions are within the power of the Irish Government to change but so much ground has been conceded that it will be a tortuous process – but still worth pursuing.

Exhortations to use more Irish grain in animal or human feedstuffs will achieve little but the continuous focus on quality has brought real premiums for Kerrygold and its producers. There are some standout examples of real quality-based breakthroughs for Irish cereal products such as Connolly’s of Goresbridge penetrating the Japanese and Chinese markets for horse feed and Glanbia, the US and British markets for gluten-free oats and Flahavan’s for organic oats, as well as the traditional beer and Guinness stout markets. But more will be needed to stop the continuous erosion of a sector that produces a range of premium materials in a uniquely environmentally balanced way and has the potential to help meet Europe’s protein and oilseed deficits.

Note: I must declare a personal interest in that I was flattered to accept the honorary position of president of Tillage Industry Ireland.