Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine Affairs Pippa Hackett announced this week the development of a new five – year national strategy for the Organic Food and drink sector in Ireland. The current national biological strategy was developed in 2019 and runs until 2025. The new strategy concerns the development of the sector until 2030.
“This government has already shown that we have the highest level of ambition for the Irish organic sector,” the minister explained. “We have introduced the largest support for organic farming in Ireland with a fivefold increase in the budget for organic farming schemes. This has already led to a rapid expansion of Ireland’s organic sector with the number of organic farmers doubling in the last 12 months. This growth will continue as we reopen the scheme to newcomers. Last week I also announced a new subsidy scheme of 1.7 million euros for the organic processing sector.”
“We have made great progress thanks to the actions set out in the current strategy until 2025 and the work of the Organic Strategy Forum. It is now important that we maintain momentum and coordinate all links in the supply chain from farmer to retailer in a new national strategy to further stimulate the development of the sector.
The new strategy will now be developed and is expected to be presented in the first quarter of 2024.