Trust, health and sustainability are the three things that really matter in 2020 for agri food, according to Alltech CEO and president Dr Mark Lyons.

He believes Ireland is well placed on all three measures, he told the Irish Farmers Journal 2020 Vision webinar.

He highlighted Alltech collaborations across industry, including a partnership with Kerry Group on 11 Irish farms that looks at nutrition and the measurement of sustainability changes that can be made.

Lyons also questioned EU policy on agriculture, though much less robustly than many in the US do.

He was of the view, however, that when it comes to policy, Ireland is the EU country that perhaps best suits beef production, more so than many EU countries.

Kerry growth

Juan Aguiriano, head of Sustainability at Kerry Group, spoke of its 3,200 milk suppliers and how farmers are and will be the backbone of Kerry.

He said the Irish milk pool was among the most sustainable in the world and suggested that maybe that story hasn’t been fully told. Customers buy sustainability more than ever before and that dairy produce that is differentiated with data to validate the story will sell best, he told the webinar.

Global company

While Kerry has its origins in north Co Kerry, it is now a truly global company. One billion consumers use at least one Kerry product every day worldwide. What is even more remarkable is that it expects to double this reach to two billion people over the next decade with Asia, particularly India and China, having huge growth potential.

Aguiriano described COVID-19 as “a time machine to the future and made people realise that we cannot have a healthy life on an unhealthy planet”.

He described food as being local, in terms of taste, but that sustainability was truly a global issue, noting that China has set 2060 as a target for being carbon neutral.

“Sustainability is now a global trend that is becoming mainstream, but with local implementation,” he added.