Irish farmers warn consumers against below-cost vegetables ahead of Christmas

When it comes to brussels sprouts, the perennial joke is that you couldn’t pay some people to eat them but what is no joke is the fact that it sometimes doesn’t pay farmers to grow them.

The ‘love them or loath them’ vegetable, a staple of the Christmas dinner, is just one example of produce that has been used in supermarket price wars in the run-up to previous festive seasons —selling for as little as five cent per net on one occasion.

Now farmers are warning retailers against a repeat performance as they prepare to buy in stock for the busy shopping weeks ahead.