Beet farmers say ‘No Sell Out’to EU reforms

FARMERS who grow beet for the €140 million Irish sugar processing industry sent a defiant “No Sell Out” message to the Government and the European Commission at a rally attended by over 3,000 people in Mallow, Co Cork, yesterday.

Beet growers from all over the country turned out to support the Irish Farmers Association in its rejection of EU reform proposals, ahead of crucial negotiations at a Council of Farm Ministers in Brussels later this week.

Over 100 loads of sugar beet plus specialised machinery associated with the crop, including harvesters used in eight decades of sugar beet production, paraded through the town and linked up with the protestors for a march led by Newmarket Pipe Band.