ICOS board director Alo Duffy.
Given the unique position of Northern Ireland, the Irish Co-Operative Organisation Society (ICOS) is calling on the European Commission to recognise mixed products as having EU origin status and regain their routes to market, ICOS board director Alo Duffy has said.
The comments come following a meeting with the European Commission, including chief negotiator of the EU-UK Trade and Co-operation Agreement Michel Barnier.
Duffy, who was also representing COPA-COGECA at the meeting, highlighted that since January, products produced on an all-Ireland basis are largely excluded from EU free trade agreements with third countries and support schemes.
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ICOS estimates potential annual savings on dairy farms of between €843 to €2,341 by using renewable energy produced on-site.
The Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) has this week welcomed the Government’s proposed micro-generation support scheme, but said that minor changes and additional supports are required.
Last month, the Government opened a public consultation into the proposed micro-generation scheme, which will allow generators to sell surplus electricity back to the grid.
The scheme is due to be launched in the summer.
ICOS, the umbrella for the co-operative movement in Ireland, will make its submission to the public consultation and said that Irish dairy farms in particular are a perfect fit for farm-based solar micro-generation.
“Time is running out to reach a policy solution on how the Department of Agriculture will implement looming EU regulatory changes on the supply of veterinary medicines, the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) has warned.
In an address to the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, ICOS urged the Department to decide on a policy that’s “best for Ireland” and to not delegate responsibility to other stakeholders whom, the society claimed, “could create a legal framework that will only enrich one profession”.
Warnings were also sounded regarding the potentially “damaging” impact of the regulations on the competitiveness and sustainability of the entire food production chain.
Irish dairy cooperatives and their farm families throughout Ireland answered a call from Co. Longford dairy farmer Mike Magan to help raise funds for the people of Yemen who are afflicted by war and famine.
The results of that grass roots campaign were realised on Friday as the leaders of cooperatives from all over Ireland joined Irish Cooperative Organisation Society (ICOS) president Jerry Long and Mike Magan in an online ceremony to transfer €190,000 to the Irish Red Cross, represented by secretary general Trevor Holmes.
Magan supplies milk to Lakeland Dairies and the farmer-owned co-op “strongly backed his initiative” ICOS said.