Ten years of the Food Fortress programme have delivered an unmatched level of security for the farming and food chain across the island of Ireland. This was one of the key messages delivered by Food Fortress Director, Robin Irvine, courtesy of his recent presentation to members of the Guild of Agricultural Journalists of Ireland. 

He went on to outline significant changes to the governance of the network

“Originally set up as a partnership between the Grain Trade association and the Institute of Global Food Security at Queens University we are pleased to announce that the Food Fortress network has now been established as an independent stand-alone business owned and directed by it's members - and with a newly appointed board representative of the whole island and both feed importers and compound feed mills. 

“Our membership comprises 82 companies and 8 million tonnes of feed production with all of Northern Ireland’s compound output covered - with the comparable figure for the Republic of Ireland around 70% and growing. We are rapidly moving towards fulfilling the original vision of delivering a testing programme that covers the entire feed compounding sector across the island.

Food fortress is a collaboration of businesses committed to improving the safety and security of the food chain but is also producing significant economic benefits to producers by promoting feed efficiency, and hence the performance and profitability of livestock systems, and is a major contributor to reduction of emissions from farmed animals.