MINISTER COUGHLAN WELCOMES A FAVOURABLE YEAR FOR IRISH FARMING

The Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Mary Coughlan TD, this week at her End of Year Review spoke of 2007 as being a favourable year for Irish farming. This was underpinned by the announcement by the CSO that farm incomes rose by 7.3% to €2,510 million in 2007.

The Minister said that "the rise in aggregate farm income was due to a rise in combination of positive trading conditions for the dairy commodity markets, a large increase in the output value of cereals and a maintenance of direct payment to farmers in 2007 by my Department''.

Total direct payments amounted to over €1.85 billion, which included over €1 billion under the Single Payment Scheme. The gross value of the dairy sector rose by €302 million to €1,629 million, an increase of 23% on 2006. The outlook for the sector remains strong with international prices expected to remain firm particularly in the early part of 2008. There was a small decline in the output value of beef markets (-2.6%) reflecting marginal reductions in output prices.

There was also a very small reduction in the output value of the sheep sector (-1.5%) largely reflecting a reduction in throughput following increased ewe slaughterings in recent years. There was a more substantial decline in the output value of the pig sector (-9%) reflecting reduced prices as well as throughput. Producer prices were down by approximately 5% on 2006.

Minister Coughlan said that despite concerns about the impact of the difficult weather conditions during summer 2007 the output value of cereals is estimated to have risen by 73% to €277 million. The volume of production increased marginally while prices rose rapidly in response to reduced supplies on international markets and increasing global demand.

Naturally, the rise in cereal prices also had on impact on feed costs, which are estimated to have risen by almost 6%, accounting for approximately one-quarter of intermediate consumption. There was a 5% decrease in the cost of fertilisers with usage declining by approximately 8%. Energy costs were up by over 5%.

Overall intermediate consumption increased by 3% The Minister said that ''the outlook for 2008 is positive, with continued strength expected on dairy and cereals markets and some tightening of meat supplies next year could result in a favourable market impact''.

"The rise in income this year provides a positive message both for our farming families, and for the future of the sector", the Minister added.

€150M AG. DEPT UNDERSPEND AS MINISTER COUGHLAN BEATS HER OWN RECORD – CREED

Fine Gael Agriculture Spokesperson, Michael Creed TD, has said confirmation from Minister Mary Coughlan that her Department underspent to the tune of €150 million means she has beaten her own record for handing back money to the Minister for Finance.

"The bad news for farmers and fishermen is that this Minister seems to view it as an achievement to hand back badly needed funding to the Department of Finance. In 2004 she managed to ‘save’ €146 million but she’s surpassed that in 2007 with a record-breaking €128 million in agriculture plus €18 million in fisheries.

“The Minister brought a proposal to the Agriculture Committee yesterday afternoon to sign over under 1% of the underspend to Bord Bia but, otherwise, Brian Cowen’s Department is the sole beneficiary.

“Just over a month since the Farm Improvement Scheme was closed down due to a lack of funds this is a slap in the face for farmers who are crying out for on-farm investment. The Minister should be driving demand for schemes and trying to meet the undoubted demand that’s out there instead of making savings at their expense”.

I.C.M.S.A. REJECT TEAGASC PROPOSAL ON FREE MILK QUOTA FOR FACTORY FARMS DESCRIBING IT AS ‘A LUNATIC POLICY’

The Chairman of ICMSA’s Dairy Committee, Mr Dominic Cronin, has accused Teagasc of losing contact with the reality of real farming and he has cited as proof that body’s latest proposal to allocate free milk quota to new factory farms.

“This is a lunatic policy that seems deliberately designed to offend those farmers already committed to dairying”, stated the Dairy Chairman.

"What Teagasc is proposing is allocating free quota to a certain number of farmers with large blocks of land where that free quota will come from a pool that should be going to existing milk producers. ICMSA totally rejects this proposal. Regardless of the format of any milk quota increase, whether it be a direct quota increase, a change to the butterfat level or an EU-wide superlevy scheme, the additional milk quota that becomes available must go to existing milk producers and no portion of any increase must go to a select few as proposed by Teagasc”, said Mr Cronin.

“If quotas are increased, Teagasc have themselves stated that milk price will fall. In those circumstances, dairy farmers who want to maintain income levels will have to increase production – again, this has been confirmed by Teagasc. However, instead of giving these farmers the additional quota to maintain income, Teagasc now want to siphon off a portion of this quota and give it to people with no involvement in milk production with large blocks of land free of charge”, continued the Dairy Chairman.

“Teagasc now seem intent on promoting 500-cow units as the way forward to the detriment of family farms. The reality for the vast majority of farmers - given their land base and available labour - is that this is not an option, nor indeed is it even desirable. Such a policy will inevitably see the elimination of family farms with their replacement by a factory farm structure".

"Where additional quota is available it should go to existing milk producers and no portion should go to new factory farms. If people want to build new factory farms on greenfield sites, they should follow the same rules as existing milk producers and not receive special treatment as proposed by Teagasc”, concluded Mr. Cronin.