AGRIBUSINESS SECTOR KEY TO ECONOMIC RECOVERY - Food company chiefs are gathering at the RDS this morning for what is being dubbed the Farmleigh for the agribusiness sector. Their challenge is to come up with a strategy to grow exports by €2 billion annually and take 16,000 people off the dole. The day is titled 'Harnessing farming, food and the green economy'. The agri sector, which for years lay in the shadow of IT and financial services, is enjoying something of renewed interest in the public imagination because it is tangible - people use our natural resources to create something and sell it abroad. The event is to be screened live on www.ifarm.ie and those tuning in on line will be able to put questions to the experts.
One of the chief executives attending today's event is Tom O'Mahony of agri-business group Origin Enterprises. He says the forum is about giving recognition of the central importance of the farming and food industry to the Irish economy. He points out that it is a €25 billion industry, representing 11% of the country's gross domestic product and over 50% of indigenous exports from Ireland. One in every seven people employed in the country are directly linked to food and farming, he adds. Mr O'Mahony says the industry is also enormously resilient, and despite the recession is still making money and still paying dividends. He says the country has the best farmland infrastructure in Europe, which enables it be the lowest cost producer of beef and dairy output. He says those sectors which focus on exports are the key to the recovery of the economy.
Mr O'Mahony says that the food and agri-sector has been somewhat neglected over the past number of years as construction enjoyed its boom time. However, unemployed builders may now find themselves back in the farming industry.
***
MORNING BRIEFS - National Irish Bank has reported pre-tax losses of €496m for the nine months to the end of September as the bank said it was setting aside €544m for loan impairment charges.Most of the impairments arise in the bank's commercial property book while a spokesman said its mortgage book is 'holding up'. NIB holds about 4% of the residential market here. NIB's parent bank Danske Bank Group, said it was setting aside €2.8 billion for loan impairment charges.
*** It is a very big day for British banking today - Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group will bow to pressure from a European Commission concerned about competition, and have announced plans to break themselves up. Royal Bank, which owns Ulster Bank and First Active here, will sell branches in England and Wales and put its insurance brands Churchill and Direct Line on the market. Lloyds, which owns Bank of Scotland Ireland and Halifax, has unveiled plans to sell its Cheltenham and Gloucester branches and sell Lloyds TSB branches in Scotland. It will also sell its online business, Intelligent Finance. Lloyds also announced a record breaking £12 billion sterling rights issue as it prefers to raise money from investors rather than join the UK's Asset Protection Scheme. This is an underwriting vehicle to insure against default on the bank's reckless lending.
*** Jitters about the level of asset sell-offs being demanded from Europe to bailed out banks saw AIB shares take another tumble yesterday over concerns it may be pressured to sell its profitable Polish banking business. The group's shares fell 10% yesterday to close at €1. 68.
*** There was a surprise from car company Ford in the US yesterday as it posted a surprise third quarter profit of $1 billion. The markets had forecast a loss and the company has said that come 2011 it will be 'solidly profitable' rather than breakeven.. Their shares gained 8% on Wall Street last night. Part of Ford's success was that it took sales from GM and Chrysler which halted production in the face of bankruptcy.
**** On the currency markets this morning, the euro is worth $1.4783 US while the euro is back above 90 pence sterling again.
