Greencore ‘has moral obligation to growers’ over contracts

GREENCORE has a corporate and moral obligation to malting barley growers to resolve the issue of their contracts, farmers claimed yesterday. They were protesting at the company’s extraordinary general meeting held in Dublin to approve the sale of its malting business to French co-op Axereal.

Irish Farmers Association president John Bryan said Greencore cannot axe contracts for 500 growers without redress before they sell off the business.

“Loyal barley growers who have been the bedrock of a very profitable malting operation have a legitimate expectation to be treated fairly in the restructuring of the business in advance of it transferring to the new owners Axereal,” he said.