IFA PRESIDENT ELECTED LEADER OF EUROPEAN FARMERS’ UNION COPA

IFA President Padraig Walshe has been elected leader of the European Farmers’ Union COPA. He becomes the first Irish farm leader to hold the post, which is for a two-year term.

Padraig Walshe said it was a great honour for his family and the Irish Farmers Association to be elected to the position and he pledged to give his full commitment to serving the interests of all farmers in Europe.

In his acceptance address, Padraig Walshe said that a strong Common Agricultural Policy is critical to European farmers and consumers.

The further globalisation of food trade through the WTO agreements, coupled with the unregulated dominance of the retail multiples in the food supply chain, is putting the future of millions of European farm families at risk and ultimately threatening to destabilise the supply of high quality, safe food for Europe’s 500 million consumers.

He said, “Since its inception, the CAP has been of vital importance for producers and has provided consumers in the EU with food security and price stability.

At a cost approx €100 per citizen per year, the CAP supports farmers to provide EU consumers with a plentiful supply of high quality food in an environmentally and animal welfare sustainable way.

“At national level, since Ireland joined the EU in 1973, average household expenditure on food has fallen from 17% to 7% of disposable income. However, a better job must be done in communicating the benefits of the CAP to consumers.

The European Commission and we as farm leaders must work to address this serious communications gap.”

Mr Walshe said, “the threat to global food security is very real. 2007 is regarded as the first year when world food supply failed to meet demand. Between now and 2030, the world population will increase from 6.8 billion to over 8.3 billion.

In addition to the rapidly growing population, the increasingly protein-based diets of developing countries is leading to increased food demand. Given the limited resources available including land and water, energy supply and price and the effects of climate change, supply may not be sufficient to meet this demand.”

“EU food security can only be guaranteed through promoting policies that secure sustainable, high-quality food produced in Europe, for European consumers.

The further globalisation of agriculture trade that will result from any new WTO agreement will not provide the necessary safeguards to ensure stable European production, and will inevitably put millions of family farmers out of business. This will expose the European consumer to volatile world commodity markets and prices.”

Padraig Walshe said, “This free-for all policy will drive food production to the lowest cost centres, ultimately leading to standards of food production and environmental protection being abandoned and jeopardising the security of food supply.

Politicians and decision makers must take action now to protect the European model of farming, which has worked so well for European consumers.”

Mr Walshe also warned about the need to regulate the dominant retail sector, which is another serious threat to European food supplies. “The driving down of producer prices to below the cost of production is having a devastating impact on the viability of farmers and threatens thousands of jobs in the agri-food and processing sectors.

Supermarkets must be held accountable and comply with proper trading standards in their relationship with primary producers. While supermarkets are entitled to make a profit, so too are farmers and food suppliers.”

“This is not just a country-specific issue, and requires an EU-wide response. The European Commission must take action and regulate the retail multiples in order to correct the imbalance of power between retailers and suppliers to ensure a more equitable share out of the consumer spend,” he concluded.