New plan targets €19bn in food and drink exports by 2025

The Government aims to nearly double the value of Ireland’s food and drink exports under a new 10-year strategy for the sector.

The Food Wise 2025 plan, drawn up in consultation with the industry, targets an 85 per cent jump in the value of exports to €19 billion by 2025.

The growth, which is expected to deliver an additional 23,000 jobs, is based on projected expansions in dairy, beef and seafood as well as a doubling of consumer food and drinks exports.

The Government's latest blueprint for sector, which builds on its Food Harvest 2020 plan, identifies a surge in global food demand, driven by emerging middle class populations across Africa and Asia, as a significant opportunity for Ireland.

However, it acknowledges that the 65 per cent increase in primary food production envisaged under the plan cannot be considered in isolation from its environmental impact.

As a result, the strategy remains subject to an environmental impact assessment, to be delivered later in the year, and also incorporates an six-week public consultation process.

The abolition of the EU’s long-standing milk quota system is seen an opportunity for the dairy sector here to finally realise its “full potential” in terms of output, export earnings and rural employment.

The strategy, however, does not include a projected growth in milk output up to 2025 but industry sources suggest authorities are targeting a 20 per cent increase between 2020 and 2025, over and above the 50 per cent increase forecast between 2015 and 2020.

In the beef sector, the plan suggests growth in value can be achieved without increasing breeding herd numbers through the use of more advanced technologies. This was interpreted by environmental groups as an acknowledgement of the potentially damaging environmental impact of increasing cattle numbers.

The strategy suggests the seafood industry here can benefit from the shift in “global economic gravity” towards the east where there is a strong cultural preference for seafood.

The drinks industry is also expected to play a pivotal role in the projected growth, with plans for a doubling of whiskey output by 2025 and an increase in the number of microbreweries to 100.

Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said agri-food was the most important sector of the Irish economy as it underpinned 170,000 jobs, a bigger employment footprint that both the pharma and IT sectors combined.

“Ireland is moving from being a quality producer of commodity-stage produce to being a producer of innovative premium products,” he said, noting the State was now selling into 170 markets.

However, Mr Coveney said the expansion could not be done at the expense of the environment as Ireland was trading on a reputation for clean, environmentally safe produce.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny said agri- food exports had played a pivotal role in Ireland’s recovery. “ Food Wise 2025 builds on this success by identifying smarter and greener ways to deliver sustainable growth so that it can contribute to our ongoing recovery.”

Former Glanbia boss John Moloney, who chaired the advisory panel which drew up the report, said the projected expansion would have to be underpinned by innovation and “deeper consumer insights”.

IFA president Eddie Downey said, however, the targets set out in the strategy would not be achieved without an increase in farm profitability.

“Growth in the agri-food sector can only be achieved if there is a fair return for all stakeholders in the supply chain, especially primary producers,” Mr Downey said.