Call for new focus on Egyptian market
“What will jump out for observers of our efforts at developing live exports (to Egypt) is the obvious importance and progress made through the face-to-face encounter between Minister of State Breen and the Egyptian Deputy Minister for Agriculture and the message that sends that we have to actually go to meet these customers and find out exactly what is hindering our live exports - indeed all our agri-related exports - and then actively tackle and remove those obstructions,” he continued.
Minister of State Breen undertook a two-day trade mission involving 12 Irish companies to Cairo in early December.
Severe increase in input costs for farmers in 2018
The President of the ICMSA, Pat McCormack, responded by commenting that this is indicative of a exceptionally difficult year for farmers due in particular to problems with bad weather conditions at key periods of the year.
The main contributor to the fall has been an increase of almost €600 million (11.2%) in intermediate consumption, particularly in terms of feed and fertilisers. Feedstuff prices rose by 34.1% in 2018, a factor that can be directly connected with poor growing weather in the early part of the year.