Ireland's horticulture sector "on life support"
"We have to be conscious that if we don’t produce it here, we’re importing something from somewhere that’s probably not as sustainable"
Ireland’s horticulture sector is “on life support” at the moment, a policy executive has warned.
And if Ireland can’t fulfil its potential of what can be produced here in a growing season, “it’s a failure”, the Irish Farmers’ Association's Robert Malone has said.
This comes as the awaited KPMG report on opportunities for the Irish horticulture sector was published in recent days.
Commissioned by Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Pippa Hackett, she said the report provides “significant data and analysis which will inform a strategy for change” for the sector.
Mr Malone was speaking at a recent meeting of the Oireachtas joint committee on agriculture, food and the marine, as it met to continue pre-legislative scrutiny of the Agricultural and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022.
He said the sectors where the significant concern lies this year are horticulture, pigs and poultry, describing horticulture as being “the sector on life support” in Ireland at the moment.
“We have to be conscious that if we don’t produce it here, we’re importing something from somewhere that’s probably not as sustainable and not as environmentally friendly,” Mr Malone said.
“There’s a lot of standards we can ensure we have in our growing season.
“And if we don’t fulfil what we can produce in our growing season, it’s a failure on our behalf and a failure of this legislation that it doesn’t support those growers and that sector to do that."
The IFA is seeking the inclusion of a ban on below-cost procurement of food in the bill, and while it won’t solve “all problems with this inclusion, it will go a long way to preventing the dominant buyer from pricing farmers out of production as has occurred in the horticulture sector for the past 20 years”.
The IFA commissioned a report in February 2022 by economist Jim Power on retail price compression and how it is threatening the viability of the Irish horticultural sector.
“The report showed that over the past 11 years, the average price of food fell by 9% while overall consumer prices increased by 13%,” Tim Cullinan, IFA president told the committee.
“This report states that the retail price compression experienced in the horticulture sector has resulted in a current market failure.
“There has been a constant decline in vegetable grower numbers from approximately 377 in 1999 to today’s estimated numbers of 100 commercially viable growers.”
The horticulture sector is the fourth largest sector within agriculture, with a farm-gate value of an estimated €467m in 2020.
Mushrooms and potatoes are the top value crops - 44% of total - in horticulture overall.
Along with challenges related to inputs such as energy and packaging; labour; and market access; dependence on peat along with supply constraints poses a threat, especially to sectors such as mushrooms.
Growing Media Ireland has welcomed the “long-awaited” report, and has called on Government to address its key recommendations to ensure a “thriving, sustainable horticulture industry, beginning with the urgent need to develop viable mechanisms to sustainably use domestic peat supplies in horticulture, especially in the context of current geopolitical events”.
The mushroom sector has an approximate farm-gate value of €124m, with 34 growers producing on 40 farms in Ireland and 3,221 people employed.
