Public Consultation on the Mid-Term Review of Food Vision 2030

The agri-food sector has benefited from an approach to strategic planning through the development of stakeholder-led strategies with a ten-year horizon, published every five years. Since their inception twenty years ago, these strategies have ensured that the sector has a coherent, stakeholder-led vision and strategy to underpin the sector’s continued development.

In late 2019, a Committee with 32 members representative of the sector, independently chaired by Tom Arnold, was established. In August 2021, Food Vision 2030, Ireland’s shared stakeholder-led strategy for the agri-food sector, was published.

In a review of Ireland’s journey towards sustainable food systems by the FAO and Wageningen University in the Netherlands, it was concluded that these rolling ten-year strategies have created an important space for deliberation and negotiation among the various stakeholders. “This cross-sector networking aspect is often overlooked but is an important achievement for a healthy agri-food sector. It generates a wider diversity of policy options to choose from, and if managed well, creates a stronger support base for new policies and investments towards food system transformation”.

The Food Vision 2030 High-Level Implementation Committee (HLIC), chaired by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has met 16 times to date.

The third Food Vision 2030 Annual Report detailing progress was published in September 2025. Good progress on implementation has been made to date. 172 actions (79%) have either been completed or have had substantial action undertaken, a further 46 actions (21%) have commenced.

A Food Vision 2030 dashboard has been developed and is available on Gov.ie. The dashboard displays baseline environmental, economic and social data for a number of key performance indicators. The aim of this new Food Vision dashboard is to monitor progress against the key indicators set out in Food Vision 2030.

As we enter the second half of this decade, it is timely to reflect on what has been achieved and to formally consider how Food Vision 2030 can evolve further, to ensure that it remains ambitious, focused, and responsive to evolving challenges and opportunities.

Minister Heydon decided to commence a mid-term review rather than begin a new strategy process, because the core missions and ambitions of Food Vision 2030 are as relevant to the challenges and opportunities for the agri-food sector today as they were four years ago when it was published.

A mid-term review will provide stakeholders with an opportunity to consider what has been achieved and how the strategy can evolve further in the lead up to 2030. A review of the strategy rather than drawing up an entirely new strategy at this point, will provide important policy stability to the sector. After the post CAP-2027 has been agreed, it will be timely to look to the period after 2030.

A key element of Food Vision 2030 is stakeholder engagement, both in the initial strategy design process, but also ongoing afterwards, in implementation and ongoing review.

It is vital that stakeholders are consulted in this process, to ensure that Food Vision 2030 remains as a stakeholder-led strategy.

Submissions can be made by downloading and completing the online consultation questionnaire, which sets out a series of structured questions for each of the four Food Vision 2030 Missions.

Submissions should be sent by email to: foodvision2030@agriculture.gov.ie

The closing date for submissions is 5pm Thursday, 14th May 2026.

If you have any queries regarding this consultation, please contact: foodvision2030@agriculture.gov.ie

We are committed to engaging with stakeholders in a clear, open, and transparent manner. Any person or organisation can make a submission in relation to this consultation. All submissions and feedback will be considered.

Please note that all submissions received may be made available under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 (FOI) and may be published on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine website.

In responding to this consultation, parties should clearly indicate where their responses contain personal information, commercially sensitive information, or confidential information that they would not wish to be released under FOI or published on the Department’s website.

We would like to draw your attention to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine's Data Protection pages on our website. This provides information on how the Department processes personal data and it also explains your rights in relation to the collection of personal information and how you can exercise those rights.

For this consultation process, should any personal data be received, it will only be processed for purposes associated with this consultation and any resulting administrative programme of work.