Beleaguered farmers to face further pressure after cold snap
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BELEAGUERED Fingal farmers face a winter of discontent as the cold snap renders many crops useless, placing further financial pressure on the sector.
As temperatures continue to plummet, ice and snow has prevented the majority of growers to tend to their fields, leaving a bleak future, both in the short and long term.
'It's fairly tough out there,' one local farmer told the Fingal Independent. 'The crops would have come into winter suffering from the very wet summer growing conditions.
'This is the final blow in terms of the crops' ability to stand up to this winter. It's pushing it to the limit. Any crops that aren't protected would be under pressure with those types of temperatures.
'Farmers are not able to harvest these crops at the moment. Most of the potatoes left in the ground, they reckon over 50% of them are going to be rotten.
' When you're getting temperatures of –8, -10, - 12, you're going to lose those crops. It's the same with carrots and other crops and it's a countrywide thing.' Aside from the inclement weather, growers are continuing to struggle for survival as the price-war between the major retailers continues, a factor exacerbated by the so-called 'cost cutting' supermarkets selling fresh produce for next to nothing.
'Every time you buy local produce, you keep money in the country,' the farmer continued. 'More and more money is going out of the country.
'The big problem is the selling of products below the cost of production. It's an interesting thing to see the price of food lower than the cost at farm level and now we're wondering whether there will be enough food.
'There is no competition. You have five entities, which are monopolies. They dictate the price. The growers need to be able to have a seriously responsible approach from retailers for the next year.'
The farmer called for Government intervention, warning the sector would struggle to continue and said many growers were 'in shock and have been for a while'.
' We can't afford to keep a rope around our britches and keep our pants up,' he added. 'When you see the effects of a small amount if conditions which we cannot control, what's going to happen when the oil input goes up?'
- Robin KIELY
