The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon today (Monday, April 27) said that the crisis in the Middle East “continues to put pressure on fertiliser prices and may affect availability as the year progresses”. 

The minister is attending the Agrifish Council in Luxembourg, today.

Key items on the agenda include discussions on the design of income support under the post-2027 CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) framework and the current market situation.

Speaking in advance of the council meeting, Minister Heydon said: “Obviously the conflict and the crisis in the Middle East and the energy shock that that has provided is having a very real impact on our farmers, our fishers, our farm contractors, food production and drink production companies across Ireland and across the EU.

“It highlights our vulnerability and the challenges we have around our dependency on fertiliser and fuel and how those are critical input costs, so the need to support our farmers and our fishers and farm contractors is something we recognise in Ireland and we look forward to working with that.”

The minister added: “I continue to raise the concerns around the impact of this on our food production system in the context of food security, which is such an important element of all of our discussions across Europe and how CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism) can play a contributing factor to those increased costs down the line.”

Minister Heydon said that he looks forward to “the commission’s proposals and action plan on fertiliser, which is currently being worked through, and we'll have a feed into that conversation again today for our need to support our sectors because of those impacts.”

CAP

In relation to the CAP, the minister said: “We will be discussing that and Ireland has a very clear view around the balance that needs to be struck between protecting the commonality of the Common Agricultural Policy and all the benefits that that brings to member states, but also recognising the need for subsidiarity and flexibility for member states to adapt measures, acknowledging that member states have very different farming systems, have very different size and scale of farms and very different challenges.”

Ireland will hold the presidency of the council of the European Union from July to December this year. Minister Heydon said that Ireland is “very ambitious for our presidency”.

The minister said he is “working very closely with (Cypriot Minister for Agriculture) Maria (Panayiotou) and my colleagues in the Cypriot Presidency as they come to a conclusion of their six-month term and we'll be ready to take the baton and to make as much progress as possible with the cooperation of member states as well.”

Costs

On the cost of farming, Minister Heydon said: “I think recognition of the fact that we need to be able to support our farmers to take shock and the energy shock across the Middle East is leading to an increase in really significant inputs, inputs that our farmers can't do without.

“And those increased costs are a real concern now.

He added that this is a moment for Europe “to work together across member states and for the commission to lead on that”.

Minister Heydon said: “I know this is something that Commissioner (Christophe) Hansen (European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food), while he doesn't control everything that comes under the Fertiliser Action Plan, is having a very big input there. So today is very much about supporting him in those efforts.”