United Kingdom-Farmers Union Wales object to Irish currency claim.

WALES-FARMERS UNION OF WALES.

Farmers’ Union of Wales president Gareth Vaughan has protested to the European Commission Office in Wales after Irish farmers demanded a sterling equalisation scheme to make them more competitive in the export market.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and Irish Exporters’ Association (IEA) have formed a partnership to urge the Irish department of enterprise, trade and employment to introduce a scheme which would allow farmers to trade at a guaranteed rate of 80 pence to the euro.

The call comes in response to a weakening pound that has made the importation of Irish meat into the UK less lucrative than in previous years.

The euro is now worth around 96p, compared with 72p at the end of last year and 60p in March 2000. But today Mr Vaughan said such a move would make a mockery of the principles upon which the Common Market and European Union were established.

"A sterling equalisation scheme would amount to export subsidies being applied to trade between between Member States and I expect the EC to give short shrift to the proposal.

"The UK agricultural industry has suffered for many years due to the strength of the pound, while importers into the UK have benefitted. Now the exchange rate favours domestic production our competitors want to distort the market back in their favour.

"I have already raised this issue with the EC’s Office in Wales and urged them to dismiss out of hand any prospect of an equalisation scheme."

In January to October 2008 UK exports of fresh and frozen beef rose by around a third to 64,000 tonnes compared with the same period in 2007, while exports to the Irish Republic rose by 70 per cent. UK sheep meat exports to the Republic also rose by two-thirds during the same period, while UK exports to France rose by a quarter.