Consumers can either have cheap fruit and vegetables or pay a fair price to farmers and workers – not both, according to rural youth organisation Macra na Feirme.

Reacting to reports today, Friday, April 17, of seasonal horticulture workers being flown into the country by Keelings, the association highlighted the role of the consumer and the public in the situation.

Macra urged the Irish public “to consider the role they play in supporting the unfair practices of supermarkets in driving the price paid to fruit and vegetable producers by supporting supermarket chains practice of below-cost selling”.

In a statement, Macra na Feirme said it is calling on the next Government to support and protect farmers producing fruit and vegetable through the transposition of the EU Unfair Trading Practices Directive.

Macra president Thomas Duffy commented, saying: “These are skilled workers coming in to do a very necessary job.

“Many of these seasonal jobs were advertised. Clearly, they couldn’t be filled by Irish workers due to pressure from retailer to keep costs low.

Consumers can have cheap fruit and vegetables, or the supermarkets can pay producers a proper price. You can’t have both.

The association highlighted that, similar to the pig and mushroom industries, the Irish horticulture sector relies on a high number of foreign national workers, directly employing 7,464 workers each year.

These are identified as an essential part of the supply chain, the young farmer organisation added.

Macra agricultural affairs chairman John Keane added: “The practices of multinational supermarket chains have forced the industry into this situation where they are reliant on foreign workers.

“The consumer cannot ignore their role in that.”

The association has contented that Irish fresh produce growers are in a weak position to bargain with retailers as they are often competing to supply retailers.

“This position results in the producer obtaining prices that just cover or fail to cover their production costs,” Macra says.

Highlighting a competitive disadvantage faced by Irish compared to their international counterparts, it was noted that there has been a drop of 56% in the number of commercial growers since 1999.

Macra says it welcomes the commitment that all necessary bodies including the Health Service Executive (HSE) will ensure the 14-day quarantine is applied and these workers have sufficient space and resources needed to protect them and the communities they live in from the Covid-19 infection.

Concluding, Macra called on all horticulture producers to ensure these jobs are advertised first in Ireland to reduce the risk and foreign workers are only required to be flown in where this has failed to secure workers.