Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 26 April 2018
5. Deputy Eamon Ryan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when he will reopen the organic farming scheme; his plans for organic farming here; and the percentage of produce here that is organically grown. [18437/18]
View answerWe are advertising the country by means of the Origin Green programme, which is right as we have the potential to be a really green agricultural country, but that is not helped by the fact that when it comes to the league table for organic production we are second last in Europe. That beggars belief in a period when, according to a recent assessment by Bord Bia, the market is growing by something like 23% per annum.
The organic scheme was hugely successful when it was launched in 2014 to 2015 but it was then closed. When will we reopen the scheme? When are we going to show ambition in that regard? This has been talked about now for two years. Farmers are waiting. I know there is a consultation process but there is urgency attached to going in this direction. What does the Minister intend doing?
I recently announced the establishment of a new organic sector strategy group tasked with developing a strategy for the development of the organic sector for the period up to 2025. The group has already met twice and I expect will report back later this year with a detailed report and recommendations to drive the growth of the sector.
The terms of reference of the group are: to review the implementation of the 2013 to 2015 action plan; to assess the case for a targeted reopening of the organic farming scheme; and to draft a new strategic plan for the development of the organic sector up to 2025.
The new strategic plan will feed into the new rural development plan and Food Wise 2025. A public consultation process has been initiated by my Department and the deadline for receipt of submissions is 31 May of this year. Further details can be found on my Department's website.
This is an opportunity for all interested parties to contribute to the development of the new strategic plan for the sector. This strategy will incorporate sectoral and cross-sectoral recommendations, market developments, training and education, public awareness and wider EU policy. It is critical that stakeholders make their views known before the finalisation of this strategy, which aims to build on progress made, and provide clear direction for further development of the organic sector for the next seven years.
The current organic farming scheme under the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 has proven to be extremely successful, attracting more new applicants than any previous scheme, and encouraging a significant number of Irish farmers to convert to organic farming systems. This is a co-funded scheme, supported jointly through the rural development programme by the EU and the Irish Exchequer. At this point in time, the budget allocated to the new scheme in Ireland’s rural development programme has been fully committed and all targets set for the scheme within the RDP have already been achieved. Any possible reopening of the scheme could only be considered in the context of the available budget in the overall rural development programme.
With regard to the extent of organic production in Ireland, there are currently 2,127 organic operators, of whom more than 1,700 are farmers. The latest figures indicate that there are now some 72,000 ha under organic production, which is an increase of nearly 50% on the position at the start of the programme in 2014.
I welcome the consultation, which I saw on the website, although we must be quick as people are waiting. It is difficult to make a contribution to the consultation when one does not know the Minister's views. The Minister of State outlined that 1.7% of land in this country is in organic production at the moment. The average in the European Union is 7%. Does he think we should have that level of ambition and that we should grow to meet the European average? We could go further. Should we aim to be like the Italians, Spanish, French or Germans who have up to 20% of their land in organic production? Where are we going? What is the scale of ambition that the Minister seeks to reach? That is what must come first rather than referring to the caveat that it must be within the budget of the rural development fund.
Obviously, it has to be within the budget but it is the Government that sets the ambition. If they are to come back with a consultation against an empty space where there is no clear vision for what the Government wants to do, given that there is significant demand as the Minister of State himself would admit, a significantly growing market and significant benefits in a variety of ways, what is the scale of his ambition for organic farming in Ireland?
Ten years ago, the land cover was 1%. We have doubled it. The target at that time was 5%, set by the Deputy's former colleague and my predecessor, then Minister of State, Mr. Trevor Sargent. The scheme, when it was reopened, took in everybody who applied. It was the highest intake ever. It was unprecedented. Everyone who was in the scheme had their plan rolled right to 2020. That is why there are 1,700 farmers in it. We more than doubled the budget, from €4.5 million to €10 million. The reason that the public consultation period is so short is to try to ensure we receive proposals at an appropriate time this year from the group.
I also acknowledge the work of its predecessor, the organic focus group, which set targets, all of which were achieved. We are growing in the right direction. The purpose of the strategy is to set out some of the answers to the questions the Deputy has raised.
Has the Minister of State a view on what our level of ambition should be? If the Minister of State opened an unencumbered scheme tomorrow, as he stated, he would see ten times that number applying.
There are real questions as to how we would do it to develop horticulture and tillage, as well as beef and sheep, which have been particularly popular up to this point. In any consultation process, however, we must know what is the scale of ambition. Where does the Minister of State want to go? I accept it doubled from €4 million to €10 million but to be honest, we are spending that amount of money marketing, on a single trade mission trip over to Japan or whatever, that we are an Origin Green country. We should be spending ten times that in making this switch because it is one of the main solutions that will help Irish agriculture get out of the crisis it is in at present. It helps us on water quality, carbon emissions and on price to family farms. There is a myriad of different benefits. In my mind, €10 million is not the scale of support we should be giving. I am keen to hear the Minister of State's vision as to where we should go, rather than it merely being a blank space into which we are consulting.
For a start, I do not know that any trade mission has ever cost €10 million.
The terms of reference are to get the stakeholders and the experts to set out their vision for it as well. There are areas the Deputy has identified. We could open up a scheme without having it clearly defined. There are impediments in the current structure that are restricting expansion in the sector. The Deputy mentioned tillage and cereals. One of the main inhibiting factors is that 32% of all lamb produced organically ends up sold organically because the cost of buying imported supplementary feed is such that it does not render it economically worthwhile to pursue organic sales beyond the grass-fed lambs. That is the sort of area we need to look at when we are looking at scoping out a new scheme. We could open a scheme without consideration to any of those matters and it would not be effective. We need to ensure, if the scheme is reopened, that it is targeted in a way that makes it effective.
