Fresh produce market valued at €1.65bn, but local growers in decline

Some 83% of the fruit and vegetables we consume are not Irish. In a special report, we investigate where our food comes from and why it matters.

Ireland's fruit and vegetable sector employs about 7,000 people in full-time primary production. Picture: iStock/PA. 

The eating habits of Irish people began to change in the defining decade that began in 1960 with foreign travel, holidays in the sun, and the opening of the country’s first national television service, now RTÉ.

Fruit and vegetables grown in warmer climates tickled the taste buds of a nation that was more accustomed to potatoes, cabbage, turnips, and carrots grown in back gardens, apples from trees planted on suitable plots of land, and eggs laid by roaming farmyard hens.