IFA to stage sugar protest

AN urgent SOS message will be issued to the European Union and the Government at a public protest in Mallow, Co Cork, tomorrow afternoon - ‘Save Our Sugar’.

The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has organised the rally to highlight the serious threat posed to the future of sugar processing and beet growing in Ireland.

Negotiations on radical proposals to reform the sector across the EU will take place over three days in Brussels next week.

Despite opposition from Ireland and 10 other EU states, EU Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said yesterday there is no other alternative.

Farm families from around the country, farm leaders and politicians are expected to take part in tomorrow’s protest. A convoy will transport loads of beet through the town at 1.45pm. It will link up with the protesters at Quartertown Industrial Estate and proceed from there to the Greencore Sugar factory.

IFA sugar beet section chairman Jim O’Regan said that cutting the beet price to €25/t would make beet growing in Ireland totally uneconomic. He urged people “to turn out in force at the Mallow protest”.

IFA president John Dillon and others will address the rally outside the sugar factory, where the current beet processing campaign is taking place.