Report highlights worth of local agribusiness in Mid Ulster

A MAJOR report carried out by a leading audit and advisory service has underlined the importance of agriculture to the local economy in Mid Ulster and the North as a whole.

The survey carried out by KPMG, the multinational professional services network and the globally-acclaimed accounting organisation, in association with the Irish Farmers Journal, found that agribusiness within a 30 kilometre radius of Cookstown contributed a staggering £1.634billion to Northern Ireland’s national economic output.

The findings concluded that a total of 10,040 jobs were linked to activities in the agri-sector in the area.

The report focused on five towns on the island of Ireland – Ballyhaunis, Cavan, Charleville, Enniscorthy and Cookstown. Only Charleville contributed more to the national economic output than Cookstown.

Of the £1,634million contribution to the economy, £566m was generated by the poultry industry, £390m by the dairy sector, £287m by beef farming and processing, £226m by the pig industry with sheep contributing £90m and tillage £76m.

Breakdown of jobs

In terms of jobs, the report found that 3,407 were linked to poultry, 3,183 to dairy, 1,882 to beef, 1,245 to pork, 192 to sheep and 176 to arable farming.

The survey found that the 2,400 farming holdings in the area farmed 40,000 dairy cows, 37,000 beef cows, 136,000 sheep, 105,000 pigs and a whopping 8.4 million chickens.

The total land included in the survey was 129,011 hectares, 4,628 hectares of which was used to grow crops with the rest in grassland.

The population of the area surveyed amounted to 90,000 people. Of the 10,040 jobs linked to agriculture, 2,214 was on-farm employment.

The key agribusinesses in the area are the Karro Food Group, Moy Park, Dale Farm, Foyle Food Group and CAFRE.

Karro in Cookstown is the largest pig processing facility in the UK.

It sources pigs from across the island of Ireland and was the biggest single customer for an estimated 360,000 pigs imported into the North from the Republic last year.

Dale Farm’s dairy processing business at Dunman is based three miles on the Moneymore side of Cookstown and 10 miles in the other direction beef and sheep processors ABP and Dawn Meats have factories next door to each other in Dungannon.

Moy Park is also based in Dungannon and boasts one of Europe’s most modern poultry processing factories.

CAFRE’S Loughry Campus also contributed significantly to the local economy.

While the report underlined the importance of agriculture, many of the respondents had genuine concerns moving forward.

These included rising input costs, adapting to climate change and meeting sustainability targets, stagnate product prices and low margins, and the sourcing and retention of labour.