Odds lengthen on reprieve for sugar factory

SUGAR beet farmers in the south have been disappointed in their efforts to secure an alternative use for the Mallow sugar plant due to close on Friday.

Efforts by the political parties have failed to generate much support to have the plant used to produce bio ethanol from sugar.

Central to the debate is the position of Greencore. It stands to get up to €135 million in compensation from the EU for giving up its sugar quota and will not want anything to stop that from happening.

If Irish farmers continued to grow sugar that could jeopardise those substantial payments and neither the group nor the IFA want to see that happening.

Sugar growers in the south are in reality out on a limb on this one and despite pressure from Fine Gael and more recently the Labour Party it looks as if Mallow will be shut down and its equipment sold on.

Much confusion surrounds the issue, and Minister for Agriculture, Mary Coughlan, is still awaiting a reply from the company about the commercial possibilities of producing bio ethanol at Mallow.

In the middle of all of this Teagasc told farmers recently that it was possible to use Mallow to make bio ethanol from sugar.

Jim Burke, who works out of Oakpark for Teagasc, informed sugar beet growers it was possible to make the conversion from sugar. That was a far cry from saying the use of Mallow, for such a venture, could stand on its own without State support.

Farmers in their desperation concluded from Mr Burke’s comments that he had a report to fully stand up the argument for the commercial production of bio ethanol at Mallow.

But Teagasc spokesman has denied the existence of a report and suggested Mr Burke’s comments were heavily qualified.

Without Government support in the form of zero tax on the industry or unless the plant at Mallow was handed over for nothing by Greencore, it made no sense at this stage to use Mallow for that purpose, according to the Teagasc spokesman.

At this point the clock is running down. Up to 3,500 farm families, 300 workers, 100 road hauliers and over 70 contractors face oblivion.

Last Friday, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte and Cllr Sean Sherlock of Mallow, who is standing for the party in the next Dáil election, called on Greencore to clarify where it stands on the situation.

Is it going to be that the biggest achievement current management in the former state-owned company can point to is their role in closing down the Irish sugar beet industry? Will this be their crowning achievement?

Greencore has done well out of the sugar industry in Ireland and profits from it covered up the disasters the company has been involved in down though the past 10 years or more.

Is it time perhaps they did a little bit more in this instance rather than just connive the best strategy to ensure its cash windfall out of the EU?

Last Friday, Pat Rabbitte called on David Dilger to be more explicit about where the company stands.

Mr Rabbitte believed that Mallow was well placed to support a bio-ethanol plant. Those sentiments will find favour with the 1,000 farmers in Cork, Wexford, Waterford and South Tipperary who want that option made open to them as this country witnesses the end of the sugar beet era.

In a new development Fianna Fáil MEP, Brian Crowley, pledged to farmers over the weekend to take the matter up with the Taoiseach to see if anything can be done to remove the inertia within government and Greencore around this important issue to farmers in the south of the country.