DUBLIN: Ahead of the Irish government Budget this Tuesday, representative group Food and Drink Industry Ireland (FDII) has called for support mechanisms to be put in place to support Irish food businesses seeking to enter new markets, as Sterling continues to weaken.
“The current change in currency value is structural, not cyclical, and has occurred following fundamental changes to the economic and business environment domestically and in the UK,” said FDII Director Paul Kelly.
“This makes it next to impossible to pass through currency changes to export customers or absorb them within businesses. The likely damage is potentially enormous in terms of reduced export volumes and job losses.”
FDII also called for the introduction of the Employment Subsidy Scheme and Enterprise Stabilisation measures that were last applied between 2009 and 20111. It added that ‘nothing should be done that would add to business costs at this time of acute commercial pressure’.
An analysis carried out by Ibec’s Economic Unit for FDII estimated that a weakening of euro/sterling from the 73p average in 2015 to a sustained period near the 90p mark would translate to a loss of €700 million in food exports and could result in the loss of 7,500 Irish jobs.
