Ireland’s food and horticulture minister Trevor Sargent has called on the supply chain to adopt a partnership approach in the wake of difficult weather conditions for vegetable growers.
“Poor weather conditions bring huge uncertainty to harvesting and planting operations,” said Sargent. “Producers have shown great resilience, but they need some assurance about market prospects and returns if they are to continue investing and supplying local products to the consumer in a sector where seasonality provides diversity and added interest.” He pointed out that the recent EU reform of the fruit and vegetable sector will bring new opportunities to support producer organisations in supply planning and in the promotion of consumption. The new arrangements will also provide aid for producer organisations that undertake measures to prevent or manage crises such as adverse weather conditions.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s seed potato sector is set to benefit from a grant-aid programme announced last week by agriculture and food minister Mary Coughlan. The programme, which comes under Ireland’s national development plan, will fund capital investment projects for specialised seed production in 2007-08. A grant package of 40 per cent with a maximum rate of 50 per cent in the case of farmers under 35 years old applies under the scheme.
In making the announcement, minister Coughlan said this year’s scheme follows on from last year’s experience, when 14 seed potato growers were granted funding for capital investments of more than
€2 million (£1.3m). The new funding is aimed at improving the production and marketing infrastructure of the seed potato sector.
