‘Challenging times’ for ICMSA Wicklow
THERE was significant Wicklow representation including county chairperson Shane O’Loughlin at the recent Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA) AGM which took place in Limerick.
Giving what will be his last presidential address to an ICMSA Annual General meeting, John Comer told the attendance that it was ‘impossible to imagine’ a more challenging time for policy makers in the national critical farming and food production sector.
Mr Comer’s six years as the association’s president will end in December and he used this last opportunity to appeal for policy makers to act in a ‘logical and coherent way’ as they addressed what he described as a ‘queue’ of momentous challenges.
He outlined that three in particular loomed over the immediate future of farming and food production including Brexit, the ‘chaotic’ situation of which was no clearer since last year’s AGM. He focussed first on Brexit, noting that it had also headed the agenda at last year’s AGM.
Mr Comer warned the assembled farmers that they could end up being sacrificed for wider political reasons.
He added that while trade missions led by the Department and Bord Bia are welcome, they could not replace the ‘centuries-old food trade with Britain that our farming forefathers worked for and earned’.
He was highly critical of Budget 2018 and particularly scathing on the prospects of a Mercosur deal which would see South American beef arriving in the EU at the same time as we might have to find new markets for the 320,000 tonnes of beef sold into the British market.
Mr Comer warned processors against talking down milk price in an attempt to ‘soften up’ producers for milk price reductions next year and branded the market structure that dictates farmer milk prices as ‘rigged’.
He repeated the ICMSA long-standing criticism of the beef grid and highlighted the hugely important role played by live exports.
On Nitrates and land designations, Mr Comer told the AGM that fairness and practicality must be to the forefront of decision-making and on the issue of BVD and TB he highlighted a lack of commitment with the latter having become ‘an expensive industry for farmers’.