Potato and vegetable growers in the Irish Republic, who were promised a state aid package to help them cope with severe crop losses during last winter’s big freeze-up, are still waiting for compensation almost six months later.
Last week, a delegation from the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), led by president John Bryan, met Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith and his officials to press for a speeding up of payments, and further meetings are to be sought to underline the urgency of the situation.
“The minister was sympathetic, but sympathy won’t pay the bills,” said Thomas Carpenter, chairman of the IFA potato committee, who was part of the talks team. “The winter losses have left growers desperately short of capital and some are still in business only through the understanding of their bank manager.” Carpenter was one of the winter casualties, suffering “significant losses” at his farm in County Meath.
According to the Department of Agriculture, “a substantial number” of growers - thought to be several hundred - have applied for compensation. However, a spokesman was unable to say how much would be paid, or when. That, he claimed, could not be decided until all the claims had been processed.
The spokesman dampened hopes of large pay-outs. Because of EU rules on state aid, he said, compensation would be confined to actual losses and would be conditional on more than 30 per cent of the crop being destroyed. Detailed inspections of growers’ farms have been carried out and accounts showing returns for previous years have had to provided as part of the claims process.
Last winter was the coldest in Ireland for half a century and the impact on potato and vegetable crops was “devastating”, according to Teagasc, the farm research and advisory service. The IFA estimates the losses at over €20m and claims that some 6,000 acres of crops went unharvested.
One grower, TJ Sheehan, of Castletownroche, County Cork, a specialist producer of winter storage cabbage, had 24 acres of crops, with a sale value of €200,000, wiped out. As a result, he has had to lay off most of his staff. “The worst part was that my customers were then supplied with cabbage from Holland,” he says. “Now I’m just hoping I’ll be able to win them back.”
