There are currently over 100,000 kegs – or 10 million pints – of unused Heineken Ireland produce sitting in pubs, restaurant and hotels around the country.
Now it appears that the brewer may use some of it as agricultural fertiliser to offload unused stock in preparation for these businesses to reopen.
The move comes as part of an “unprecedented quality and cleaning operation” undertaken by Heineken Ireland.
As a result of the swift lockdown in mid-March, there are currently over 100,000 kegs of Heineken Ireland beer sitting in the cellars and dispensing taps of shuttered bars across the country…Heineken Ireland is now collecting this product and has committed to shouldering the cost of the unused stock it collects.
The brewer pointed out that this is “equivalent to a contribution of over ten million pints to pubs across Ireland”.
The expired draught beer and cider will be repurposed to produce electricity through anaerobic digestion, or could potentially be used for agricultural fertiliser.
Recently, Heineken’s brewery in Cork city began brewing produce again for newly-reopening pubs, restaurants and hotels.
Under the Government’s accelerated ‘Roadmap for Reopening Business and Society’, restaurants, hotels and pubs serving food will be allowed to reopen from June 29.
Tillage in the Programme for Government
Looking at the tillage sector more broadly, there wasn’t a whole lot of detail on the sector in the new Programme for Government, revealed yesterday, Monday, June 15…but there are some positives to take.
First of all, while it doesn’t come under tillage specifically, there is an outline under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to “seek reforms to the CAP to reward farmers for sequestering carbon, restoring biodiversity, improving water and air quality, producing clean energy, and developing schemes that support results-based outcomes”.
Being rewarded for carbon sequestration will no doubt be welcomed by tillage farmers planting crops and improving soil health. It could also result in a further increase in the area of cover crops planted over winter which could, in turn, help to improve biodiversity and benefit soil health, as well as water and air quality.