Great post by Kieran Murphy about Tesco’s decision to deprioritise Irish products on the shelves of shops on the border (and in the new Extra store in Douglas in Cork):

It’s a story that should have caught the attention of anyone who loves food in Ireland, since the ripples of such a decision would be immense. Tesco own around 23% of the Irish food market, and the impact upon Irish food producers (and Irish employment) in losing such a huge chunk of market share could be catastrophic. According to Bord Bia, the average spend of Irish people on imported foods has risen 50% since 2000. With Tesco dumping Irish brands, that percentage would skyrocket as a large segment of Irish consumers would lose easy access to Irish brands. There could be many Irish food companies that would not survive losing such a large percentage of their sales.

I predicted an economic recovery (2 quarters of positive growth) of mid to late 2010 on Foot.ie back in November, however this kind of thing makes me worry that if anything recovery will happen too soon, and bolster the new addition of instant gratification to our national psyche. Irish people need to start thinking beyond the short-term bottom line, to a possible future where we’re being screwed to the wall with no choices because of monopolies and cartels.

An economic recovery without recovery in employment, which is of course what’s going to happen, will not help the situation. Something needs to be done at Government level, and FF and their clown partners are not the people to do it. FG aren’t either, which is why we need Labour in Government with them (despite recent idiocy on their part).