How dairy expansion has impacted the Irish economy

Economist Ciaran Fitzgerald joins Emma-Louise Coffey to discuss how dairy expansion has impacted the Irish economy.

Ciaran recounts commonly reported expansion figures such as milk output and value of exports but takes a more in depth look at the economic impact on the Irish economy and in particular on rural Ireland.

Over 60,000 people are employed in dairy industry, including 19,000 employed directly on dairy farms.

Interestingly, Ciaran looked at the money spent in the Irish Economy relative to the value of exports for specific industries. For each €1 in exports of Irish dairy products, a huge €0.91 is spent in the Irish economy. This compared with just €0.10 for multinational exports and €0.60 for Irish indigenous companies.

Ciaran acknowledges the increasing value of Irish milk due to high value product profile including infant formula and sports nutrition changing from traditional focus such as cheddar cheese.

He also maintains that the Irish dairy industry will continue to target such value added markets which will somewhat mitigate the effects of BREXIT on the Irish dairy industry.