ICMSA say Longford and Irish farmers will suffer losses under proposed CAP reforms

Commenting on the recent announcement on the EU’s MFF and associated CAP reform, the President of ICMSA, Denis Drennan, said that the so-called ‘reforms’ were actually just a speeded-up timetable for the EU’s withdrawal of direct supports to farming and primary food production.

Mr. Drennan said that certainly farmers would not be fooled by these token ‘reforms’ and empty promises; farmers are going to suffer losses under these proposals and that is indisputable fact.

He said the only absolute certainty arising out of the recent announcements was that high standard and sustainable food production within the EU would fall and that food prices across the EU would rise as farmers will have to seek more from the marketplace to replace the reduced supports.

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“It’s not even difficult to predict the disaster that will follow this announcement, it’s just simple logic: As the direct supports for farmers fall, they will have to raise prices as they sell along the chain with a resulting impact at the point of sale to the consumer.

"Alternatively, farming and primary food production across the EU will crash and be replaced by sub-standard imports that are produced off unsustainable and environmentally destructive systems.

"The EU will also lose any ability to feed itself from within its own areas; we will lose food security. Some people might think this is alarmist, but those very same people should take a close look at developments in EU agriculture, their view will certainly change when they do so”, said Mr Drennan.

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The ICMSA President said that not alone had CAP not kept pace with inflation, the reductions to individual payments that will follow this announcement will mean that cuts will be piled on cuts.

“We’ve had many promises from the Commission on CAP on support and simplification. None have been kept. CAP and EU agriculture policy was already teetering on the brink of credibility as evidenced by last week’s fiasco on Nitrates and the Habitats Directive. Today’s announcement simply underlines the slide into irrelevance. The EU can no longer even pretend to be an asset to farmers; it’s an obstacle, a negative, that causes more problems than it provides solutions”, continued Mr Drennan.