Fertiliser firm deal to see Bord na Móna Midlands plant reopen
Chairman of the Oireachtas joint committee on agriculture, food and the marine, Jackie Cahill, told Bord na Móna representatives at a recent meeting that those in the horticulture industry are “extremely worried about their viability and the lack of available horticultural peat for 2022”.
International firm ICL Specialty Fertilizers has secured an agreement with Bord na Móna which will see it expand its operations in Ireland and enable it to supply growing media to professional ornamental growers and plant propagators across the country.
Under the terms of the agreement, ICL will lease Bord na Móna’s professional growing media mixing facility at Cúil na Móna in Co. Laois for an initial period of three years.
The agreement also covers a start-up supply stock of professional horticultural peat, harvested prior to Bord na Móna withdrawing from commercial harvesting. Under the terms agreed, this product is ringfenced for the Irish market.
Stephen Squires, regional business lead at ICL, said: “Our professional horticulture team in Ireland, led by Brendan Howell, is working closely to help growers reduce their reliance on peat and to deliver sustainable growing media solutions for the future, utilising ICL’s new Fibagro Advance woodfibre technology – a superior peat alternative with a lower carbon footprint, compared with peat and other peat alternatives.
“This agreement with Bord na Móna will see ICL expand its sustainable growing media manufacturing facilities to Ireland, to help to meet the current and future needs of Irish ornamental growers and plant propagators.
“While utilising Bord na Móna’s site and machinery - and helping secure jobs for its workforce - ICL will bring its Levington Advance formulas, know-how and technology advancements in circular economy, growing media products to Ireland.”
Head of land and habitats at Bord na Móna, Ger Breen, said that while Bord na Móna is no longer engaged in peat harvesting, it remains “keen to enable sustainable solutions in a number of different sectors”.
As part of the Government’s working group on the use of peat in horticulture, Mr Breen said that Bord na Móna is "further committed to finding solutions to the challenges facing the horticultural sector".
Mr Breen confirmed that there is an approximate volume of 2,000 tonnes of professional horticultural grade peat available on Prosperous Bog and that will be supplied to the Cúil na Móna facility. Following a High Court ruling in 2019, Bord na Móna suspended all peat extraction and made this suspension permanent last year.
"Regarding horticultural peat supplies, once the full implications of the High Court decision became clear the company signalled to its domestic horticultural peat customers that it would continue to fulfil orders of horticultural peat into 2021, while growers put in place agreements with their new suppliers," Mr Breen added.
Chairman of the Oireachtas joint committee on agriculture, food and the marine, Jackie Cahill, told Bord na Móna representatives at a recent meeting that those in the horticulture industry are “extremely worried about their viability and the lack of available horticultural peat for 2022”.
Mr Breen told the committee: “With some of the professional peat from Bord na Móna with other ingredients, the plant facility in Cúil na Móna is more than capable of meeting the needs of the Irish professional growers for the coming season and depending on what peat they can source from private producers in Ireland.
“The growing season is upon us now so what’s important here is the facility is up and running as soon as possible, and that’s what the initial 2,000 tonnes will do, is to get product produced and made available to the Irish growers.”
