Current exchange rates are creating difficult conditions for Irish companies exporting milk to the United Kingdom, the European commissioner for agriculture, Phil Hogan, said in Dublin on Friday 7 September.
Addressing a conference on the 'EU Dairy Outlook', Hogan pointed out that the United Kingdom was naturally a “net importer of cheese and butter from the EU, totalling 480,000 tonnes in 2017”. He spoke of the importance of the British market for Irish cheese producers. Exports towards the UK account for one quarter of Irish butter production.
Diversifying activity. The solution would be: “We must aim to diversify to new markets, taking advantage of the market access the EU has negotiated with Japan, Mexico, Vietnam and Singapore for dairy products”. The EU will put financial support behind this effort aimed at finding new markets, the commissioner said.
Michel Barnier, the chief EU negotiator for Brexit, made it quite clear that there would be no deal on withdrawal, the transition period or the future relationship unless there is a clear agreement on the 'backstop' (legally operational safety net for avoiding a return to a physical border between Eire and Northern Ireland) “to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland”, Hogan reiterated. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)