Organic producers ‘can compete financially’ with conventional farms

ORGANIC producers can generate incomes comparable with and exceeding those in conventional production systems, a conference was told in Tullamore, Co Offaly yesterday.

Financial analysis by the Teagasc Rural Economy Research Centre showed that family farm income on organic cattle rearing farms is 56% higher than on conventional farms. This was due entirely to lower production costs.

Output and direct payments on the conventional cattle farms were higher, but not sufficiently to cover the additional costs.

From limited data, the analysis showed organic dairy farming can generate a farm income comparable to conventional dairy farming. Delegates to the Teagasc National Organic Production Research conference were told that organic farming is expanding in Ireland. But it still only represents about 1% of the country’s land area. The area of land being farmed organically increased by 10% in 2008 and now stands at 44,600 hectares. But it is still lower than the European Union average of 3.6% across 25 member states.

There are now 1,230 producers farming organically in Ireland. The organic market has grown by 82% in the last two years. Organic production is located mainly in the west and the southwest, with counties Clare and Cork accounting for about 30% of producers. The majority of Irish organic farms are involved in cattle and sheep farming with dairy farming being one of the least represented farming systems.

The average size of organic farm is 36 hectares and compares favourably in terms of scale to that of conventional farms at 37 hectares.

Horticulture and Food Minister Trevor Sargent, who officially opened the conference, said the event was timely in the context of the Programme for Government commitment to increase the land area under organic production to 5% of total agricultural area by 2012.