Speech at a lunch hosted by Bord Bia and Enterprise Ireland
Pudong Shangri-La Hotel, Shanghai, China, 11th December 2014
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to join you here today. I wish to thank you sincerely for the warm welcome extended to my wife Sabina and I, and to the entire Irish delegation, since our arrival in China – a welcome that reflects the great hospitality of the Chinese people and the real ties of friendship that exist between our two nations.
On behalf of our hosts – Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, and Enterprise Ireland – I am, in my turn, delighted to welcome you all to this event where we will, importantly, be sharing food together. Today’s lunch is an appropriate opportunity to explore Ireland’s strengths as a food-producing island, and it will also, I hope, facilitate some important conversations. These are conversations that are informed by perhaps the most important question facing the world today – how can we meet the current resource needs of our generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs?
At the heart of these conversations must be, of course, a concern for our farmers, who, we should never forget, connect us to one of the most fundamental of human activities – that is, the production of food that is necessary to sustain human life. Our farmers, be they Irish or Chinese, are keeping alive the language of interconnections between man and nature which carries within it the knowledge to ensure food security.
I come here with a clear appreciation that farming and sustainable food production is as important an issue on the agenda of China as it is on Ireland’s. Last October, Premier Li spoke at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, where he shared the extraordinary journey China has made in agricultural development over the last thirty years. The title he chose for his presentation was “Agricultural modernisation through family farming” – a model that very much resonates with us in Ireland.
Indeed I believe that all of us here warmly welcomed the United Nations’ decision to declare 2014 the International Year of Family Farming. Family farms play a vital role in ensuring global food security, producing, according to the FAO’s latest figures, more than 80% of the world’s food in value terms.[1] They also perform important social functions – in enabling a distribution of employment across the national territory and fostering thriving rural communities.
When it comes to environmental protection, family farms provide an essential public service in maintaining the health of ecosystems, and in ensuring, for example, protection for water quality. In Ireland and, more broadly within the EU, substantial financial supports are thus made available to help farmers to undertake their activities in harmony with nature, and without damaging the natural capital on which we all depend.
I believe that all of us, decision makers and representatives of the agri-food sector alike, have a duty to promote adequate policies and supports so that as many farmers as possible are enabled to make a viable living, which often means encouraging them to add value to their produce. Indeed it would be short-sighted not to encourage policies that are robustly supportive of farming, of rural development and of the agri-food sector. In the long term, we all need to find sustainable ways of feeding our cities with food that is good, nutritious, and safe for human health.
Two years ago, President Xi Jinping made a visit to Ireland and, as part of his itinerary, he spent a morning on an Irish family farm. President Xi’s knowledge of agriculture impressed everyone who met him that day, as did his obvious interest in how rural communities can continue to thrive. And the fact that he stressed, during his visit, the tremendous opportunities that exist in China for Irish food companies, tells us that what he saw impressed him too.
Farming and the wider agri-food sector is Ireland’s oldest and largest indigenous industry. Today, it is also our fastest expanding sector, one which – it is interesting to note – continued to grow even during our recent economic crisis. Last year, Irish food and drink products were exported to 120 countries around the world, including, of course, China.
I am delighted to say that Irish food exports to China grew by over 40% last year, and today your country is Ireland’s sixth most important market for food and drink exports. Dairy, pork, seafood and beverages are at the heart of this growth. This achievement is first and foremost to the credit of our farmers, who have worked so hard to establish the good international reputation of Irish food produce, and whose focus on sustainable modes of production is recognised worldwide. Their work is also facilitated by our green island’s ample water resources and its natural abundance of good, nutritious grass.
Earlier this year, an inspection team from China’s Certification and Accreditation’s Authority, CNCA, visited Ireland to ensure our standards are in full compliance with China’s new food safety laws. I am pleased to say that our agri-food industry received 100% approval, adding to the existing global recognition of Ireland’s high food production standards. This was, once again, corroborated by an international report published last month, which ranks Ireland and Canada in joint first place for food safety among 16 OECD countries.[2]
Those standards and that commitment to producing safe, clean and sustainable food has, since 2012, found expression in a new and promising way through the so-called “Origin Green” scheme, a national programme designed to strengthen Ireland’s position in the area of sustainable food production. Origin Green is a voluntary programme, and yet, in just two years, it has enjoyed an enormous response from both our farmers and our food manufacturers. Our entire dairy industry is currently entering the programme.
For farmers, being part of that programme means taking active steps to improve the environmental performance of their farm, and submitting to regular audits to ensure progress is being made. For businesses, Origin Green means improving performances in areas such as sourcing, manufacturing and social responsibility. For communities, it means that we are ensuring that our rural heritage and resources are protected and preserved for future generations.
Initiatives such as Origin Green have positive effects well beyond the national boundaries within which they are implemented. Indeed, because of the global nature of so many food manufacturing chains, it is crucial to find ways of enabling our partners abroad to establish the traceability and sustainability credentials of their Irish suppliers. Thus, as Ireland’s partnership with Chinese food companies grows, such initiatives are an important part of our commitment to provide good and healthy food, not just to the Irish, but also to your people.
Finally, I believe that the strategic agri-food partnership between Ireland and China will greatly benefit from the expertise of Ireland’s world class food technology companies, in areas such as nutrient animal feed, the enhancement crop yields in cold, northern environments, or the advancement of software for the management, preservation and distribution of fresh food.
My wish for today’s gathering is that it will give our Chinese friends a sense of the extraordinary journey of Irish agriculture to reach the standards of excellence which we have today; and also to fully appreciate the great potential of the Irish agri-food sector. I believe that our conversations today will open up many possibilities for us to travel together as partners.
As we are facing into the future with a renewed sense of optimism, I share the hope of everyone here that the friendships and connections we are cultivating together will deliver a bountiful harvest.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh – Xie Xie dajia.
[1] FAO, “The State of Food and Agriculture 2014”: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4036e.pdf
[2] Cf report published on the 21st November 2014 by the Conference Board of Canada’s Centre for Food, in collaboration with the University of Guelph’s Food Institute. This report was aimed at measuring Canada’s food safety performance against that of 16 peer OECD countries.