The “severe pressure” that horticulture growers are under was highlighted to Minister for Foreign Affairs and deputy Fine Gael leader Simon Coveney last week.
The minister, along with Fine Gael senator Regina Doherty, met a delegation of horticulture farmers from the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) on Friday (July 1) at Sunglow Nurseries in Lusk, Co. Dublin.
The IFA worked closely with Doherty last year to progress the issue of peat supply for the Irish horticultural market, and the meeting last week further discussed the issue of peat, as well as wider issues in the horticultural sector.
Speaking after the meeting, IFA president Tim Cullinan noted that the Irish horticultural market is reliant on imported peat as a growing medium at present.
“Irish growers are under severe pressure and hugely frustrated by the lack of progress on the issue,” Cullinan said.
In January, a government-commissioned report was published which said that importing peat “does not make environmental, economic or ethical sense”, and that Irish peat “should be available to fulfill this need”.
However, the IFA said that “nothing has happened” since the release of that report.
The association’s field vegetable and protected crop vice-chairperson Martin Flynn said growers “want to find a solution”.
“We need political leadership here. We are sick of everyone blaming everyone while small growers and substantial businesses who provide a lot of employment are being put out of business by our government. It’s a total travesty,” Flynn added.
Other issues that arose at the meeting were the input costs facing horticulture growers; the Horticulture Exceptional Payment Scheme (HEPS); the establishment of the Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri-Food Supply Chain; and labour issues in the sector.
The IFA delegation criticised the fact that soft-fruit growers are excluded from HEPS, saying these farmers are “combatting the same input costs as all other horticulture growers”.
The association went on to call for a relief on carbon tax for protected crop producers.
“Without immediate government intervention to address the above issues and allow the harvesting of peat, the Irish horticulture sector faces wipeout,” Cullinan argued.
“The ministers in charge here have to step in to save the sector. The situation is now beyond serious,” the IFA president added.