Brexit hung like a cloud over Ireland’s biggest agricultural fair this week, with the country’s food and farming industries, heavily reliant on their British neighbour, feeling the impact already.
Nearly 300,000 people visited the 2017 National Ploughing Championships outside Tullamore in the central County Offaly.
Their boots quickly churning up the muddy fields, visitors were keen to trade talk of farm machinery and production volumes.
The annual gathering was also an occasion for families to see the animals, play the Irish sport of hurling and soak up the festive atmosphere.
However, for the exhibitors, the atmosphere is somewhat weighed down by Britain’s looming departure from the European Union and the slide of its sterling currency, which has made Irish exports over its only border exceedingly expensive.
John Keena, a cattle breeder, wears a stern face when talking about the 20 per cent fall in sterling against the euro, since Britain’s vote in June 2016 to leave the EU.
“Meat factories maybe are taking full advantage of Brexit, like they have dropped the prices in the last six weeks by something like 30 cents the kilo. We think it’s unjustified and that we should be back at four euros the kilo,” he said.
Economic ties between Britain and Ireland — which was part of the UK before independence in the 1920s — are particularly strong.
The Irish pound, replaced by the euro in 2002, was linked to sterling until the late 1970s.
Joe Healy, President of the Irish Farmers’ Association, in-between selfies and chomps on his muffin, expressed concern about Brexit.
“We export 90 per cent of our beef. Fifty per cent of that goes to the UK, 45 per cent to Europe and five per cent onto international markets,” he said.
“But of the 45 per cent that goes to Europe, half of that uses the UK as a land bridge to get to the European market,” said Healy, underlining the sector’s dependence on its nearest neighbour.
Like beef, Ireland’s agri-food sector — the biggest employer in the republic with 8.4 per cent of the workforce — exports 37 per cent of its production to Britain.
The mushroom industry, which sends 80 per cent of its production, has felt the pinch of the fluctuating pound, with already narrow margins tightening further and driving several operators into bankruptcy.— AFP
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