IRELAND COULD be producing sugar and ethanol again when the European Commission ends its current quota system in 2016, the Agricultural Science Association annual conference in Maynooth heard yesterday.
Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney said figures in the first of two feasibility studies on the revival of the sugar beet industry which he had seen were “very persuasive”, and he strongly supported the commission’s proposal to end the quota system.
“You will not see a stronger supporter than me of the revival of the sugar industry if it makes commercial sense,” he said.
The study he was referring to was drawn up by a group including Prof Jimmy Burke of UCD, former senior executives of Greencore/ Irish Sugar, Teagasc scientists and international consultants. It is understood to recommend construction of a plant in the southeast which would produce sugar and ethanol. The plans are based on a sugar beet tonnage of 1 million tonnes, producing 50 million litres of ethanol and 150,000 tonnes of sugar annually.
The conference, attended by nearly 300 agri-scientists, heard Irish food and drink exports to China are set to grow by almost 20 per cent this year and will exceed €150 million. Breiffini Kennedy, Bord Bia Asia manager, based in Shanghai, said China will play a vital role in growing Ireland’s agri-food industry, directly as a customer and indirectly in its key role in underpinning the global demand for food.
“This year’s big growth in Irish exports comes on top of a 12 per cent growth in 2010. Last year, Irish dairy exports to China exceeded €100 million for the first time and our meat exports, primarily pork, grew by over 50 per cent,” he said.
There were huge opportunities in China for infant formula, he added, a sector where Ireland accounts for close to 20 per cent of total world production. There was also growing potential for seafood products. He said economic growth of about 9 per cent a year, growing urbanisation and a burgeoning middle class were transforming eating habits in China.
There was good news too for beef farmers from one of the world’s leading agricultural economists, Dr Joe Glauber, chief economist with the United States department of agriculture. Irish beef farmers, he said, can look forward to continuing high prices for the next couple of years. He said the beef herd in the US has been declining and is now at its lowest level in 57 years.
There was criticism of the dairy industry by Joe Gill, head of research at Bloxham stockbrokers, who said it lacked the necessary hyper-efficiency to become a global player. “We should collapse all the dairy co-ops on the island of Ireland into one entity,” he said.