Northern Ireland's farming minister has met with farmers to discuss the impacts the situation in Ukraine is having on food supply chains in the region.
Minister Edwin Poots has requested government officials to hold agri-food industry forum meetings on a weekly basis as the conflict continues.
Initially established to consider responses to Covid-19, the meetings will now focus on addressing the impacts caused by the current crisis in the Ukraine.
At the initial meeting on Friday, fears were raised over rising feed and fertiliser costs, labour supply problems, energy price hikes and supply chain disruption.
Mr Poots met the Ulster Farmers’ Union (UFU) and representatives from the grain and fertiliser industry, where he warned that the crisis would 'get worse'.
"The main concerns expressed by the primary producers are the continued increase in energy, fuel and grain prices," he explained.
"There are concerns about the cost and availability of grain and fertiliser. I believe grain and fertiliser prices will remain high beyond this year into next year and perhaps into 2024.
"I am already lobbying the UK government to consider the 25% tariff on maize for export from the US and I will raise the issue of nitrogen application limits to agricultural land with my officials.”
This week, the Minister also briefed the Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee on the issues and told them: “This is a UK wide problem and an issue for the UK government to take forward.
"I have written to the Secretary of State, George Eustice to urgently consider a range of measures, including financial assistance for UK farmers to support them through the crisis.”
Mr Poots has also written to the Finance Minister asking for assistance for the agri-sector to enable it to deal with the rising costs that are impacting on their businesses.
Following the meeting, UFU president Victor Chestnutt said that the war had also stressed the importance and fragility of food security, both at home and abroad.
"We farmers stand ready to do all we can to ensure the public continues to have access to high-quality, affordable, climate-friendly food when they need it.
“There are some clear short and long-term actions that government can take to maintain confidence and stability across the UK’s food producing businesses.
"We have shared these with government and want to stress that we’re ready to take these forward together, to navigate the extreme volatility we see today, and which is expected to grow in the coming months.
"We will continue to work with DAERA regularly to address the situation.”
