In 2006, organic horticultural vegetable farm, Green Earth Organics based just outside of Galway city delivered its first boxes of organic vegetables to homes nationwide.
Agriland visited organic farmer, Kenneth Keavey on his 25ac farm to talk about his home delivery business and the challenges to the horticultural sector in Ireland.
About half of the farm is under production at any one time, growing seasonal organic vegetables, including brussels sprouts, parsnips, kale and leeks at this time of the year.
Green Earth Organics
Keavey put the land, which had originally been owned by his grandfather, into conversion for organic status in 2004 and planted a 7,000-tree native woodland forest.
While primarily supplying to customers what is grown on the farm in Galway, Green Earth Organics also works with a network of other Irish organic farmers nationwide.
Speaking to Agriland, Keavey said: “We buy directly from them – from potatoes, to mushrooms, to scallions, to spinach, to cabbage, to carrots all grown here in Ireland by other brilliant organic Irish farmers.
“That’s our first port of call when we need to buy produce in and we have agreements and we pay fair prices for the produce. It is difficult work to produce good quality, local Irish organic vegetables.”
For produce that can’t be grown in Ireland, the business also works with a series of producers in Europe. During this time of the year, for example, organic lettuce is sourced from a fair trade co-op in the south of France.
Customers have the choice of choosing what organic produce they want or opt for a fixed box filled with only Irish organic produce or European organic fruit and vegetables, which either don’t grow in Ireland or are not currently in season.
Irish-grown vegetables
In 1980, Ireland had almost 1,300 commercial horticultural growers, today this figure stands at less than 270 growers. Meanwhile, over 340,000t of vegetables worth more than €400 million were imported last year.
The Galway organic farmer said it is “no secret” that over the past decade more and more horticultural growers have been leaving the industry because they haven’t been paid a “fair price” for their produce.
Keavey added that the Irish horticulture industry is “not in a great place” today, which he said is a result of supermarkets devaluing produce by not paying fair prices and by selling horticultural products as “loss leaders”.
However, he said the industry has the potential to be “so much more” as there are “a lot of very good growers” in the country. The organic farmer added that a generation ago most people grew their own vegetables in the country.
“There is no reason why we need to import so much produce, especially produce that is grown here seasonally. If you have got Irish carrots, it should only be Irish carrots, we shouldn’t need imported carrots.
“We can grow in the season all the carrots we need in the country. That will happen if there is a fair price paid for the carrots, it is just the nature of the market.
“But if you are consistently buying cheaper, imported produce to undercut the Irish product, well then it is very difficult to see how the industry can sustain itself without fair pricing,” Keavey told Agriland.
However, he thinks this is changing because consumers are now “more aware” of the Irish product which they want to buy preferentially, and supermarkets are responding to this by increasing the prices paid to farmers a “little bit”.
“But every increase has to be hard fought for,” Keavey added.