EU, Government decisions ‘killed off beet industry’

EUROPEAN and Government decisions left Greencore with no realistic economic alternative but to end the Irish sugar industry, an Oireachtas committee has been informed.

Addressing a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food yesterday, Greencore chief executive Patrick Coveney said the November 2005 decision by the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers to introduce phased price cuts for beet growers and sugar processors had the explicit aim of ending production in regions like Ireland. Furthermore, a 2006 Department of Agriculture decision to base compensation for beet growers on contracted volumes for the years 2002/03/04, rather than the most recent period, meant Greencore could not secure contracts from producers for beet tonnage for processing at Mallow in late 2006.

Mr Coveney concluded that “in a collapsing sugar market and with no certainty of access to a sugar beet crop, Greencore had no choice but to announce closure on March 14, 2006” of the Mallow plant it had recently invested €25 million in, to “avoid incurring unsustainable losses”. This led to the agriculture conglomerate renouncing the Irish sugar production quota and seeking EU compensation.