The hardy nursery stock trading season has gotten underway, following the annual Irish Hardy Nursery Stock Association (IHNSA) trolley fair.
The fair is the event that marks the start of the hardy nursery stock trade, and is regarded as an important date in the horticulture sector’s calendar.
The fair took place yesterday (Tuesday, February 27) in Whites Agri Premises in Lusk, Co. Dublin.
It brought together key industry leaders and was described as an excellent opportunity to showcase Irish produce and to combat the importation of nursery produce.
The IHNSA Trolley Fair is supported by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) and Bord Bia, and it offers traders a chance to meet growers and industry experts.
The IHNSA chair Val Farrell has called on all garden centres and retailers to support the Irish amenity sector.
He said the amenity sector is an important indigenous sector worth €100 million at the farm gate.
“There are many challenges facing the industry at present such as substrate availability, spiralling input costs and staff shortages.
Over the past three years the combined inputs have risen by on average 32% for the sector,” Farrell said.
“The importance and potential of the Irish amenity horticultural sector is recognised in the National Horticulture Strategy, all actors in the chain must come together if the ambition to grow the sector is to be achieved,” he said.
The National Strategy for Horticulture 2023-2027 provides a roadmap for the horticulture industry and was one of the recommendations in the Food Vision 2030 policy document.
The aim is that the implementation of eight ‘Key Strategic Actions’ will drive change and growth across all the horticulture industry’s sub sectors and lead to environmental, economic and social sustainability.
More than €14 million has been allocated in Budget 2024 towards the National Strategy for Horticulture.
Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Pippa Hackett confirmed the allocation of a total package of €14.35 million.
Of this, €3 million has been allocated to provide advance payments to producer organisations under the EU-funded scheme for the fruit and vegetables sector.