Replacing imported horticultural produce with Irish produce is a “necessity”, according to independent TD Michael McNamara.
However, it will be difficult to do that “when carrots are for sale at 49c per bag”.
The deputy told the Dáil recently that there “has to be some correlation between the price at which products are sold and the cost of production”.
“I grew up in Clare and there was extensive market gardening in Kinvara, presumably supplying Galway mainly, and in Ogonnelloe, supplying Limerick. That is all gone because who can compete?
“People think they are doing the world a favour when they are buying organic carrots from Morocco that have been flown in here.
“Unless there is some type of link between the cost of production and the price at which produce is sold, there will be a difficulty.”
Imported horticultural produce on the supermarket shelves
Deputy McNamara’s comments came as Green Party TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh asked the Minister of State Pippa Hackett about the KPMG report recently commissioned by the Department of Agriculture on the growth opportunities in the horticulture sector, including opportunities deriving from the global trend towards plant-based diets.
“One of the things that [has] driven me mad for years, particularly at this time of the year, is to walk past apple trees laden down with apples only to find New Zealand apples on the shelves of our supermarkets,” the Waterford TD said.
“Mick Kelly had a similar journey with regard to garlic when he set up GIY Ireland Ltd. He was looking at Chinese garlic on the shelves when it is so easy to grow it in this climate.
“By the same token, I visited Grantstown Tomatoes, tomato growers and horticulturists in Waterford. The owner has an outstanding operation. The produce is of the highest quality and he uses biological pest control.
“All those things are absolutely first rate, but the market makes it incredibly difficult for him to make a margin. It is extremely tight and he finds that he can only aim at the highest end because we are not always prepared to pay for the quality.
“How can we help horticulture growers from now on to make it a more profitable business for the people involved?”
Horticulture sector ‘largely ignored’
Minister Hackett said that the horticulture sector has been “largely ignored over the decades in terms of support”.
“That has increased more recently and it is something we have to build on. There is a role for horticulture, particularly now with the need to shorten supply chains,” she said.
“There is a huge import substitution piece that we are not embracing yet, and there is certainly an intent to do that.
“In Budget 2022, €500,000 has been allocated for examining local food systems and how to connect local growers with local consumers.
“There are supports available but it is not always easy to navigate access to local foods for either a producer or a consumer. Work is going to occur in that area.”
Deputy Ó Cathasaigh added that there is a “massive opportunity” for local and rural jobs.
“The horticultural sector is worth approximately €467 million per annum to the economy, and approximately 6,600 people are directly employed in it.
“There are many different sectors within it, but in field vegetables we have gone from 300 operators in 1999 to 140 operators now.
“The number has more than halved in that time. While the amount of produce arriving on the shelves is more or less the same, we have fewer producers because profit margins are becoming incredibly tight.
“Even with regard to soft fruit operations, we know that staffing issues are increasingly difficult. It is a sector that is primed and ready for growth and we have an outstanding quality of produce but the sector needs support to help it become viable.”
A ‘necessity’ to replace imported horticulture with domestic
Independent TD Michael McNamara agreed that it is a “necessity to replace imported horticulture with Irish horticulture”.
“However, a further difficulty is that while it provides an opportunity for more jobs, as deputy Ó Cathasaigh said, existing producers cannot get labour.”
The announcement was made this week of changes to the employment permit system for workers from outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
These changes, which apply to a number of key economic sectors, will create new employment-permit quotas to address the serious labour shortages in the agriculture and agri-food sectors.
These will include 1,000 horticulture operatives.
IFA horticulture chair Paul Brophy said that this new permit quota is “long overdue and critical” for the sector and he called for clarity on the timeframe for approval of these permits.
“The availability of skilled workers remains the number-one constraint for the sustainable expansion of the sector,” he said.
“The additional permits should help to alleviate the considerable immediate shortfall. However, the seasonal permit scheme needs to be in place before next spring.”
Industry is ‘running out of time’
Fine Gael senator Regina Doherty has also this week called on the Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan to publish the report by the Working Group which was set up to review the use of peat moss in the horticultural industry.
She said that the Working Group has held 11 constructive meetings to review the use of peat in the horticultural sector.
“An interim report was sent to the minister in May, and now the final report has been completed and is sitting on his desk since October 20, waiting to be published,” senator Doherty said.
‘’The horticultural industry is simply running out of time for a solution to this problem.
“The livelihoods of these growers of fresh Irish fruit, vegetables, flowers, and shrubs and the 17,000 jobs have never been so at risk. We simply cannot kick this can down the road any longer,” the Dublin Fingal senator added.