A meeting of malting barley growers will take place on Tuesday (March 19) at 8:30pm. The meeting will be held in the Farm Centre in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford.
The meeting, which will be hosted by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), will provide an update on price negotiations between the IFA and Boortmalt.
Farmers rejected the last price proposal put before them and agreed to plant the crop, but not to sign up to any agreement until further progress is made.
Current deal on the table
The current deal on offer provides farmers with two options. They are detailed below.
First option
Farmers may sign a contract and take the average of the Free on Board (FOB) Creil price between April and September as their harvest price.
Farmers who sign this contract and do not meet specifications and do not reach their potential yield will not be penalised if they do not meet their contracted tonnage.
Second option
The second option allows farmers to hedge barley throughout the season without signing a contract. Any barley which is hedged must be accounted for in the market, meaning that a farmer that hedges and does not meet the specifications or the tonnage would owe barley to the market.
Many farmers have already fixed 20% of their tonnage at a price of €230/t, which was offered last September.