A group of vegetable and fruit growers in north county Dublin, the heart of the Irish industry, has broken away from the powerful Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) to set up their own organisation.
Provisionally titled the Irish Horticulture Association, the group is headed by a former fresh produce co-ordinator with the IFA, PJ Jones, and has ambitions to become a national body. Talks have taken place with growers in Cork and Wexford.
The breakaway has been prompted by unhappiness among some growers at the representation being offered to their sector by the IFA. They claim that while agriculture minister Brendan Smith was pressured by the IFA leadership to provide a compensation package for potato producers in the wake of the big freeze, the plight of fruit growers and those with protected crops was ignored.
In addition, they claim that the IFA has been less than forceful in the fight to prevent the planned closure of the Teagasc research centre in Kinsealy, north county Dublin, which they say will damage their livelihoods and Irish horticulture.
The initiative for the new breakaway organisation came from PJ Jones, who quit the IFA earlier this year in a dispute over cutbacks. In a letter to growers, he warned that without more effective representation, the industry was in danger of collapse. A series of meetings followed at which the new organisation was formed.
According to Jones, only potatoes were covered in the original compensation package and he has succeeded in having it extended to other vegetables, in talks with the department of agriculture. “I got a good hearing with the department,” he said. “We are also getting fruit and indoor crops considered for compensation.”
He has had talks with Teagasc, the farm research and advisory service, on the threatened closure of Kinsealy. “North county Dublin is the country’s most intensive area for vegetable, fruit and protected crop production, and will be most affected by the closure,” he claims. “We haven’t lost yet - we’re still fighting to keep it open.”
The IFA, the Republic’s main farm organisation, with some 90,000 members, is reluctant to discuss the breakaway, an embarrassing development at a time when a new national president has just taken office. But trade sources agree that the new body will face an uphill task in establishing itself as an effective voice for the sector, with sufficient clout to make a difference to the lives and livelihoods of Irish growers.
