Food producers want to grow more of our own

Despite our reputation as a food island, about €5 billion was spent on food and drink imports last year – and not all of it was on items we don't produce, writes ALISON HEALY

WE ARE frequently told that Ireland is the food island. So that must mean that we are pretty much self-sufficient when it comes to feeding ourselves?

Actually it doesn’t.

We exported almost €9 billion worth of food and drink last year, and, while figures vary, depending on what is included in the food category, it’s generally accepted that about €5 billion worth of food and drink was imported.

Of course, we need to import certain foods. “We’re never going to produce olives in Ireland unless there’s some kind of change in our climate here,” says Minister for Agriculture, Simon Coveney. “And we’re not going to be producing wines.”

That explains why the Central Statistics Office says we spent more than €708 million on imported beverages last year and a further €361 million on coffee, tea, cocoa and spices.

Bord Bia senior business analyst Pádraig Brennan says we wouldn’t be in a position to produce a “a good chunk” of that €5 billion worth of food and drink, suggesting that at least 40 per cent of it could not be produced here. He highlights commodities such as beverages and sugar.

But we also spend hundreds of millions of euro importing food that grows here. Last year, Irish consumers spent almost €1 billion on imported vegetables and fruit – and not all of those were papayas and mangos. We imported more than €283 million worth of poultry. We spent more than €200 million on imported pig meat.

We may be an island nation, but we also imported almost €190 million worth of fish.

Brennan advises against taking the import figures at face value. “In some categories, we import ingredients and raw materials, which will be processed here and eventually re-exported, so not all imports are consumed in Ireland,” he says.

Bord Bia categorises food and drink exports differently to the CSO and “prepared foods” was its biggest category of imports last year, accounting for a €1.67 billion spend. This includes ingredients and raw materials and much of this will be exported.

“Likewise, in the meat sector, some product will be imported for further processing and re-export,” he says.

All this was good news for our nearest neighbour, Britain. It supplied us with more than €2 billion worth of foodstuffs last year, ranging from pig meat to vegetables, cereals and drinks.

Tipperary apple grower Con Traas says we imported about €100 million worth of apples last year. There are about 40 commercial apple growers in the State, but they produce only about 5 to 10 per cent of the apples we eat.

Before Ireland joined the EU, he recalls that imported apples would not be allowed into the State until the homegrown varieties were gone; the introduction of the common market changed that.

Apple production has fallen in the old European countries while increasing in eastern Europe and in places such as India, China and Turkey, where labour and production costs are low.

The story is similar with vegetables. Irish Farmers’ Association horticulture chairman Brian O’Reilly says there are between five and seven significant carrot growers left in the State. He knows of three significant field vegetable growers who are switching to corn next year because the margins are much better.

“They are not looking for huge margins. They wouldn’t have a problem with a 5 to 7 per cent margin if they could get it.”

He grows mushrooms and estimates that there are only 53 other commercial mushroom growers left. About 15 years ago, there were more than 400.

O’Reilly lays much of the blame for the demise of our horticulture industry on the supermarket chains. “The bottom line is that the supermarkets are looking for cheap food and they don’t care where it comes from.”

He says supermarket chains tend to use Ireland as a dumping ground when they have an oversupply of vegetables in Britain. This recently happened with iceberg lettuce, he says.

And tomato growers cannot compete with the lorry loads of tomatoes coming from the Netherlands. Every year they face a struggle to get supermarket chains to commit to a programme, he says.

Adding to their woes are the increasing costs of production and the sterling differential. O’Reilly says our traditions of fruit and vegetable growing will be consigned to history if farmers are not supported. He calls for a task force and a code of practice to protect growers.

Tesco, for its part, highlights its contribution to the Irish economy and says the supermarket chain is the biggest supporter of the Irish food and agri-sector, with more than 11,000 farm families supplying their produce to it.

“Internationally, Tesco is one of the biggest export destinations of Irish food and accounts for €705.8 million in Irish food exports a year,” a spokesman says.

“This makes Tesco the second largest destination for Irish food – ahead of France, Germany or the US and accounts for 9 per cent of total food and drink exports. Vegetables and horticulture account for €51.9 million of this export total.”

Good Food Ireland argues Irish produce will not replace imports until there is complete transparency over labelling. The organisation, which champions the sourcing of local produce, says it’s extremely difficult for consumers to understand what is Irish.

“Is it Irish oak-smoked salmon or oak-smoked Irish salmon?” asks managing director Margaret Jeffares. “Say that to a normal consumer and they haven’t a clue of the difference but the reality is, Irish oak-smoked salmon means it could be foreign salmon but it’s oak-smoked in Ireland whereas oak-smoked Irish salmon means it’s Irish salmon. How would a consumer ever understand that?

“At the end of the day, consumers are going to make a choice and that’s fine as long as they have the opportunity to make an informed choice, and I don’t believe that currently consumers are able to make an educated, informed choice around sourcing of local food.”

She points particularly to a lack of transparency around sourcing of local food in the hospitality industry. “There is an awful lot of that €5 billion worth of imported food going into the Irish food service industry – how can we change that?

“Currently, there isn’t a strong enough economic driver for a hotel to say ‘I’m not buying imported Dutch fillets. I am going to buy Irish fillets.’ The customer needs to be coming in asking for it.”

Bord Bia encourages consumers to look more closely at the origin of their food, seeking out the quality assurance mark on pig meat and poultry, for example.

The symbol is on more than 95 per cent of produce from Ireland “so if it doesn’t carry the quality mark, then it’s more than likely not Irish,” says Brennan.

He says competitiveness is a major issue for Irish producers. “If you have a country that’s producing an awful lot of pig meat and is selling a relatively small amount to Ireland sometimes it can come in at very low prices. The sector here just wouldn’t be able to compete with that at times.”

Coveney says Irish agencies are working hard to ensure that food produced in Ireland builds a reputation among Irish consumers as well as international ones.

Research carried out three years ago found that 25 per cent of consumers made their choice on the basis of where food was produced. “Now that figure is 35 per cent . . . and that’s something that’s just going to get stronger,” says Coveney.

Looking at our €9 billion worth of food and drink exports last year, he says there is a significant net value to our exports versus imports. “And that gap will actually widen in my view as we continue to grow the value of Irish exports.”

FOOD FOR THOUGHT MAIN FOOD IMPORTS JAN-DEC 2011

Fruit and vegetables: €958.4 million 

Cereals and cereal preparation: €799 million

Beverages: €708.7 million 

Meat and meat preparations: €706.7 million

Feedstuff for animals, excluding unmilled cereals: €618.7 million 

Dairy products and birds' eggs: €473.9 million 

Miscellaneous edible products and preparations: €428.8 million 

Coffee, tea, cocoa, spices and manufactures: €361 million 

Sugars, sugar preparations and honey: €270.3 million 

Fish, crustaceans, molluscs and preparations: €189.4 million

Source: Central Statistics Office

MADE IN BRITAIN SOME IMPORTS FROM BRITAIN 2011

Cereals and cereal preparations: €495.9 million 

Fruit and vegetables: €324.2 million

Dairy produce: €193.4 million 

Beverages: €133.9 million 

Beef: €103.2 million 

Fish: €100.4 million 

Poultry: €89.2 million

Source: Central Statistics Office