‘EU sugar reforms will cripple growers’
IFA sugar beet section chairperson Jim O’Regan said it is outrageous and totally unacceptable that the leaked proposals would cut beet prices by 42.6% and put Irish beet growers out of business, while paying compensation to processors worth 120 per tonne of beet for closing sugar factories from July 2005.
Speaking before meeting with Agriculture and Food Minister Mary Coughlan, he said she must insist on a viable future for beet growing in Ireland, which is the cornerstone of the Irish tillage sector, and that means rolling back these unsustainable price cuts.
Mr O’Regan said any EU restructuring scheme must be voluntary and provide full compensation directly to Irish beet growers, who give up their livelihood in beet, including those affected by the Carlow factory closure earlier his year.
“The Minister must reject the EU’s approach and fight for a viable sugar beet
industry, while compensating beet growers forced out of production,” he said.
Macra na Feirme president Colm Markey called on Minister Coughlan to state unequivocally that any potential compensation for surrendering beet quota as proposed in the leaked EU draft reforms would be paid directly to the farmers filling the quota.
“The Minister must vehemently resist these proposals and fight for a viable beet industry in Ireland. However, the leaked proposals have increased the likelihood of a quota buyout being part of the final package and it is now time for clarity on the issue,” he said.
Mr Markey said that while young farmers wanted a viable future in beet rather than a buy-out scheme, the issue of beet quota ownership was important for every grower.
The young farmer leader said that while he understood that the Government was awaiting a legal opinion from the Attorney General on who actually owned beet quota, it was clear that beet growers were the moral owners.
“Many young farmers have purchased beet quota in recent years through a Government-sanctioned restructuring scheme, and to suggest that any of this quota could be expunged by the EU without the farmers receiving the compensation is totally unacceptable,” he said.
Mr Markey said that even the slightest suggestion that the compensation could go to a privately-owned company like Greencore was abhorrent and immoral.
He said the issue of who would receive the compensation in a buyout scenario needed to be resolved immediately in advance of any discussions on the latest EU proposals taking place.
Mr Markey said the beet price proposals in the leaked document would wipe out the Irish beet industry and the Government needed to take a very tough stand in the negotiations.
