Dublin cucumber farmers win Newbie new entrant competition

The company is one of only two commercial cucumber growers in Ireland

Gary Weldon, Sean Weldon and Shane Halpin in one of the Welgro glasshouses

Dublin farm Welgro Produce has been selected as the winner of the third Irish Newbie new entrant competition. The company, which was established by Shane Halpin, Sean Weldon and Gary Weldon, is one of only two commercial cucumber growers in Ireland.

The three complement each other well: Shane, has a background in horticulture and mechanics, Sean an accounting and processing background and Gary has an agricultural degree share the management responsibilities.

As with many new entrants to the agri-food industry, access to land was a major hurdle, meaning leasing the disused glasshouses was the most viable option to allow the business to get started.

The trio identified an opportunity to develop a business using glasshouses that had been unused since the owner’s retirement and now tend to over 20,000 cucumber plants across the three-acre site

Welgro has developed relationships with a number of major retailers and employs around 15 people at peak times across its grading, picking, packing and distribution divisions.

Speaking following the announcement, Shane Halpin said: “We at Welgro are very proud to have won the Newbie award. We as a team have worked very hard over the last year and it is great to get the recognition of Teagasc.” 

Gordon Peppard Teagasc added: “It is very exciting to see three young enthusiastic new entrants to agriculture, recognise a gap in the market, devise a business plan and seek out the necessary facilities to make their plan a reality.”

John Moriarty, Teagasc adviser on the Newbie project, said Shane, Sean and Gary had shown great initiative.

"In setting up Welgro Produce, they have identified a suitable enterprise and pursued the opportunity," he said.

"Like most new entrants, purchasing or developing a site would be difficult for them so they have used leasing to overcome the barrier and become established in the industry."

The Newbie Network is an EU Horizon 2020 funded project with 10 European partners. 

The Newbie initiative aims to bring together new entrants, successors, advisors, researchers, important regional and national actors and stakeholders, with the aim of enabling helping entrepreneurs to successfully establish sustainable farm businesses in Europe and overcome common barriers.

New entrants are defined as anyone who starts a new farm business, or becomes involved in an existing farm business regardless of age.