Representatives from Northern Ireland’s £5 billion agriculture and food sector met last weekend at Moy Park for a Business Advisory Group meeting.
Agri-food firms and industry representatives joined the Secretary of State’s Business Advisory Group’s core members for a discussion focused on how the sector’s world class performance in recent years can be protected and expanded.
Also joining the meeting was Minister for Exiting the EU Robin Walker, whose first visit to Northern Ireland since being appointed follows Secretary of State for Exiting the EU David Davis’s visit last month.
Northern Ireland is in a unique position, as the only UK region that will share a land border with an EU member state when the UK leaves the EU.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland James Brokenshire said Northern Ireland’s food and drink sector makes a "vital contribution to economic life" both in Northern Ireland and the wider UK,
"The sector sustains tens of thousands of jobs and livelihoods," Mr Brokenshire said.
"The UK government is focussed on securing continued growth across the whole UK economy and forging new international trading links.
"We see Northern Ireland’s food and agriculture sector having an important role in this.
'Positive and constructive'
The Ulster Farmers’ Union deputy president Victor Chestnutt described the meeting with Mr Brokenshire and Mr Walker, as positive and constructive.
"It was a wide ranging discussion I believe they left with an understanding about the importance of agriculture to our rural communities and wider economy.
"This is a major issue for farmers here, especially in terms of livestock trade and as an export market.
"We are seeking reassurance that there will be minimal disruption to this relationship," said Mr Chestnutt.
Referring to suggestions by some of the ministers' Conservative colleagues that leaving the EU is an opportunity for cheaper food, Mr Chestnutt said Brexit should not be about undermining farmers with imports of cheap food.
"Instead we should be backed to provide high quality, traceable food at a reasonable price for consumers.
"Northern Ireland is already a net exporter of food and Brexit is an opportunity for us to develop our industry through ‘Going for Growth’ to help make the UK more self-sufficient in food.
"If we were paid a price reflective for the food we produce we would not need a subsidy from the Government," he said.
