Mulder-type legal action on sugar beet closure considered
Legal experts are already examining the 1980s Mulder legal action by dairy farmers, to see if it is applicable to the Irish sugar beet situation.
The Mulder case was won by farmers who joined EU schemes offering payment if they suspended milk for five years. No provision was made for them when milk quotas were introduced in 1984, so they found themselves excluded from dairy farming when their five-year non-production periods ended. The European Court of Justice held that EU regulations were invalid and the farmers got milk quotas, and were compensated.
Some ex-beet growers in Ireland believe they have a similar legal case to make, says Jim O’Regan, who was chairman of the IFA sugar beet section from 2002 to 2006. But he hopes it is Irish Government pressure, and negotiations rather than legal actions, which can persuade the European Commission to reinstate Ireland’s sugar quota, and allow sugar beet based processing to restart here.
He hopes that will happen a lot sooner than 2015 — the year when the EU sugar regime is due for review.
He says that following a meeting on Wednesday, January 12 at the Kilkenny Mart Centre, more than half of Ireland’s former beet growers will have attended meetings on reviving a sugar industry — and a register of thousands of farmers interested in growing sugar beet will be a major negotiating tool for a sugar industry steering committee.
The Kinsale-based farmer is inspired by west Cork’s Carbery Milk Products, which produces alcohol from milk “Who’d have thought it was possible?” he says. A supporter since 2005 of the option offered by the EU to subsidise conversion of the industry in Ireland to 50/50 sugar and ethanol production, O’Regan envisages ethanol coming from a future beet industry here, but says an EU sugar quota is also necessary. He says a viable factory would operate year-round, ideally supplying heat and power to local industries, and also processing a wide range of energy crop materials such as grain, cereal straw, miscanthus, and forestry thinnings.
Also driving farmers like O’Regan is the realisation that the 31,000-hectare sugar beet crop played a vital role as a break crop for improving cereal yields, and returning vital organic matter to tillage soils. Despite sugar reform price cuts, O’Regan believes current European sugar beet prices make it a viable farm enterprise in Ireland — because Irish farmers always earned €10-15 per tonne above basic prices, and new improved sugar beet varieties are available.
Tested last year by Teagasc, they yielded an impressive 75 tonnes per hectare (30 tonnes per acre) at Oak Park in Carlow.
He has welcomed indications from within the Cork, Wexford and Kildare County Councils of willingness to fund sugar industry restart feasibility studies. He has been encouraged by large attendances of younger farmers at recent sugar beet meetings, and looks forward to the Kilkenny meeting continuing the momentum of farmer support.
He revealed that many farmers in Leinster and the midlands have contacted him seeking to host meetings in their areas, and they are expected to attend at the Cillin Hill Kilkenny Mart Centre, on January 12.
