Elaine Loughlin: Reliance on fruit and veg imports reveals just how vulnerable our food security is

nk lady apples are a lunchbox staple in our house; the two opened packs both had clocked up significant air miles originating from Brazil and Chile, respectively.

A heavy political and economic focus on two cash crops — beef and dairy — has left Irish consumers extremely vulnerable when it comes to the food that goes on our plate. While the beloved spud has been historically synonymous with this country, we now have become a country known for shipping baby formula to China and the US.

Ireland exports €19bn worth of food and drink products each year, but must import more than 80% of the fruit and vegetables we eat here. This nonsensical approach, which has prioritised and pushed the production of two highly lucrative export-led sectors, means that the majority of produce that could easily be grown here comes from abroad.

The end of quotas has bolstered milk production over the last decade, with more than 17,000 farmers making a living from dairy.

Meanwhile, the number of commercial vegetable growers continues to dwindle and is now in the hundreds.

In researching this column, I took a trip into my own fridge where origin labels left me embarrassed, but confirmed the reality of a declining indigenous sector and the reliance on imports in 2026.

Pink lady apples are a lunchbox staple in our house; the two opened packs both had clocked up significant air miles originating from Brazil and Chile, respectively. This was particularly mortifying as I had the visual proof that apples love the Irish climate from my own two trees which this year are laden down with fruit in the back garden.

Next up was half a cucumber, which had come from Spain; a bag of spinach from the UK; and carrots from Denmark. As expected, the avocado had arrived from the other side of the world — Peru.

I was relieved to see the tricolour on the bottom corner of my bag of Maris Piper potatoes; the vine tomatoes had also been grown in Swords, Co Dublin, and a second bag of carrots had been produced in Kilkenny.

Soaring fuel and fertiliser prices have put massive pressure on an industry that is already exposed to discounting from large retailers and is subject to significant labour costs.

In March of this year, Hughes Farming, a major agricultural producer accounting for roughly 12% of Ireland’s carrot supply, entered liquidation.

Responding to the collapse of the Co Kilkenny grower, Michael Healy-Rae, then still a minister of state at the Department of Agriculture, stressed that this country is “better at producing our goods than anyone else”, and urged people to support Irish growers.

“It drives home now more than ever before that the customers — the people who go into shops — should be looking to try to buy Irish produce.”

The reality is that this is not always possible, even for the most diligent of shoppers who have the time to look at origin labels. Buying Irish will become even more difficult if the trend continues.

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We import around 800,000 tonnes of produce each year, with the number of Irish growers reducing every year.

Banana plantations will never be part of the Irish landscape, but the figure seems absolutely bonkers for a country that has a temperate climate, regular rainfall, and rich soils.

Many crops that can easily be grown and produced almost 10 months of the year in Ireland, are now being imported from the likes of Holland, Spain, Egypt, and further afield.

Seasonal imports of fruit and vegetables that can be grown domestically make up 29% of total imports: potatoes (18%), apples (5%), and soft fruits (6%), a UCD report states.

“It is a sad situation when farmers producing beef and dairy products, where over 90% is exported, are doing better in world markets than farmers supplying fresh fruit, vegetables, pork, and poultry to be consumed in Ireland,” the IFA’s Brian Rushe told an Oireachtas committee.

Relying on imports for our five a day is always a precarious route to take, but the added threat of a changing global climate will only compound the issue in the years to come.

Threat to food security

Mick Kelly, founder of GIY, has been signalling alarm about just how vulnerable our food security is for many years.

“I think, strategically, Government has almost made a decision that our agriculture is about beef and dairy, and we are going to import most of our veg from the EU,” he said.

“That’s fine when things are good in the EU, but the problem is the countries we import most of that veg from, like the UK and Spain [are impacted by climate change] — we get 40% of our fruit and veg from the UK and they are having an absolute disastrous year on the veg front.

“Some crops have completely failed, broccoli is down by 50%, carrots are looking at severe losses.”

The situation has become so precarious in the UK that those previously on opposing sides have joined forces in issuing a letter to prime minister Andy Burnham calling him to urgently ensure the food system becomes a national priority, alongside energy and defence.

The letter signed by more than 100 organisations warns that “the next food shock is not a question of if, but when”.

Retailers Tesco, Sainsbury’s, and Aldi, and manufacturers Danone and Greencore, are now united with charities including Barnardo’s, Amnesty International UK; farming representative bodies; investment companies; and health organisations in calling for a ‘Good Food Bill’ to increase national food security and improve the UK’s health.

This list of signatures illustrates the level of cross-sector concern, and stresses that food has to stop being an afterthought for governments.

We need mechanisms to put food high on the priority list of every part of government, both national and local, so that any decisions that impact on health, farming, planning, and trade secure better access to healthy and sustainable food for everyone.

The proposed bill would provide a legally binding framework to improve national food and nutrition security, public health, and food system resilience.

It would also require ministers to consider food in decisions across health, education, farming, planning, environment, and trade.

Meanwhile, over on this side of the Irish Sea, Bord Bia has warned that our heavy dependence on imports leaves us vulnerable to supply-chain shocks, transport disruption, and extreme weather, which have the potential to quickly drive up prices or, in severe circumstances, leave supermarket shelves empty.

Global food prices have now hit their highest level in three and a half years, as summer heatwaves and conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East push up crop costs.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) index of food commodity prices, which tracks monthly changes in a basket of internationally traded food commodities, cited heatwaves as a factor hitting wheat yields in several key producing countries in July, while sugar prices have been driven up by fears over “persistent hot and dry weather on crop yields in the European Union”.

It all signals another jump in the cost of the weekly food shop here.

Ensuring growers get a fair price for their produce; making the sector viable through supports; educating the public on the value of shopping local are all measures that could protect what is left of the horticulture industry.

To guarantee access to affordable and fresh food into the future, we must start treating our fruit and vegetable producers as a national asset to be protected.

• Elaine Loughlin is Political Editor.