Exporting massive volumes of \u2018milk\u2019 powders to West Africa is harming economic and health outcomes in the region, as well as our own climate and sustainability goals, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson.<\/p>\n
Senator Stephenson said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not appropriate for over a quarter of a million euro of taxpayer funds to be spent on pushing fat-filled milk powder (FFMP) in West Africa in a manner which misleads its consumers.<\/p>\n
\u201cMultiple Irish brands have run public health campaigns backed by state funds in Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal, claiming that FFMP has health benefits for children – these assertions are unsubstantiated.<\/p>\n
\u201cMuch of the West African population are lactose intolerant, yet the advertising and PR campaigns empowered by the Irish state do not serve to address this.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeanwhile, this practice is harming small farmers in the region who produce genuine milk products, many of whom have gone out of business due to the cheapness of FFMP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Irish State is funding sustainable dairy projects in West Africa at the same time – backing FFMP exports is harming the very initiatives we\u2019re trying to implement, initiatives that could have long and lasting impact in terms of food security.<\/p>\n
\u201cFFMP is the State\u2019s largest dairy export by volume – if we are to have any chance at meeting our climate targets, we should be reducing our dairy exports, not repackaging every waste product from the production of genuine dairy products into something consumable and flooding volatile markets with it for profit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIreland needs a robust, sustainable agricultural policy which puts food security and climate-friendliness first – exploiting markets abroad by funding propaganda about sub-par products does not have a place in such a model.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Department of Agriculture must cease these suspect practices and look to transition away from exporting these products, with an eye to reducing dairy production emissions and refocusing on domestic food security.\u201d<\/p>\n
July 15th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Exporting massive volumes of \u2018milk\u2019 powders to West Africa is harming economic and health outcomes in the region, as well as our own climate and sustainability goals, according to Social Democrats foreign affairs spokesperson Patricia Stephenson. Senator Stephenson said: \u201cIt\u2019s not appropriate for over a quarter of a million euro of taxpayer funds to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12306,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[410,408,641],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-agriculture","category-foreign-affairs","category-patricia-stephenson"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n