The three Ministers for Agriculture will be turning on the charm in a range of locations this St Patrick’s Day, in a bid to boost relations with Ireland around our exports.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue will be despatched to eastern Africa, where he will visit Kenya, Ethiopia and south Sudan to promote Irish goods.

Minister of State Pippa Hackett will go in the opposite direction and will be heading to Finland, Estonia and Lativa.

The aim here is no doubt to promote our organic wares, with around 60% of the people of Finland regularly purchasing organic products.

Minister of State Martin Heydon, who himself is responsible for market access, is to go to Germany, which should tie-in nicely with Bord Bia’s big promotion of organic beef and lamb there. Hopefully they get results.

I see that Minister for Environment Eamon Ryan is off to Brazil for the few days. The Dealer will be interested to hear what he makes of a Brazilian steak.