In 2023 to-date, there have been over one million plants of whitethorn/hawthorn imported into Ireland from within the EU.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) recently removed the requirement for whitethorn planted under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) to be of Irish provenance and origin.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue confirmed that to-date in 2023, 1,006,150 plants of Crataegus (hawthorn/whitethorn) have been imported into Ireland from within the EU.
This was in response to a parliamentary question from Carol Nolan TD, who asked the minister whether the volume of imported whitethorn would have an “adverse impact on the indigenous timber industry”.
The minister responded that “there are no commercial uses of whitethorn wood in the timber industry, therefore little or no impact on employment in the timber sector is anticipated”.
Imports of whitethorn
Minister McConalogue said that the trade and movement of plants and plant products into and within the EU is governed by the EU Plant Health Regulation 2016/2031.
This regulation sets out a framework of protective measures against the introduction of organisms harmful to plant and plant products, and against their spread within the EU.
Within the EU, a protected zone can be applied to a region in which a harmful organism which has established in one or more parts of the EU is not present in that region.
Ireland is recognised as having a favourable plant health status and has the highest number of protected zones in the EU with 23 pests and diseases listed.
Fireblight
While whitethorn is a host plant for the disease Erwinia amylovora (Fireblight), Ireland has a protected zone for this disease.
All host plants entering a protected zone are subject to advance notification and must be accompanied by a specific protected zone plant passport which certifies that the additional requirements have been fulfilled.
EU plant passports are issued by professional operators who are authorised to do so by the competent authority.
As fireblight affects whitethorn/ hawthorn, it has the potential to harm wildlife that rely on hedgerows for shelter and food, but it poses no risk to human or animal health.
People who have host plants in their nurseries, garden centres and gardens are requested by the DAFM to examine their host plants regularly for signs and symptoms of the disease.
Infected trees can be identified by the wilting and death of flower clusters and by sunken cankers.
Fruit and leaves on infected branches also die and turn brown but remain attached to the tree.
In Ireland, it is regulated as a quarantine pest and findings are eradicated, with the exception of Galway city, where it is established since 2014, but in Northern Ireland it is unregulated and widespread.
Symptoms of infestation are usually not initially evident but become expressed when plants are under stress.
The distinctive symptom is the ‘Shepards stick’ which is a curling of the dying shoot and leaves.
Whitethorn sellers
Agriland spoke to a seller of whitethorn in the west of Ireland who said the “demand is huge” from farmers and said there will be “plenty available” as a result of the import of whitethorn from the Netherlands.
“When you have only one supplier you can keep a close eye on disease and if it is spotted it would be dealt with immediately,” they said.
They added that sellers have the “responsibility” to monitor the plants for disease.
A seller in the midlands told Agriland that they supply Irish and Dutch grown whitethorn and they are “the exact same plant”, but added the species from the Netherlands would tend to flower later than the Irish plant.
They said that before leaving the Netherlands they receive an inspection, and then receive a plant passport, before being then inspected in Ireland upon arrival, and are then given another passport.
As far as this seller of whitethorn was aware, “everything is being done to mitigate the chance of fireblight coming into the country”.
They added that their own nursery would receive checks from the department throughout the year for fireblight and other diseases.
Concerns
Spokesperson for Hedgerows Ireland, Alan Moore has written to DAFM asking for the details of any disease risk analysis carried out to support the decision to import non-native whitethorn into Ireland for the requirement for whitethorn planted under ACRES.
Joe Gowran from Woodlands of Ireland shared similar concerns, pointing out that Ireland could lose its EU Protected Zone status if fireblight outbreaks exceed the capacity of DAFM to suppress them.
In a joint statement, the representatives of both organisations mentioned that DAFM sources indicated 19 detections of fireblight this year, with an unusual ongoing case of roadside infection spreading to internal field boundary hedges in Kerry.
Moore and Gowran are asking that a “moratorium” (temporary prohibition) on importing whitethorn plants be considered by DAFM.
While they have said they understand that DAFM did encourage local nurseries to increase home production of whitethorn in December 2021 by increasing seed collection from 2022, they say a lead-in time of three to four years is needed to meet this demand.