Independent TD for Offaly Carol Nolan has challenged the Government to explain how Ireland, a country renowned for its agricultural sector, has become overwhelmingly dependent on imported fruit and vegetables, with approximately 83% of produce purchased by Irish consumers now sourced abroad.
Deputy Nolan raised the issue with the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, following the publication of a Climate Change Advisory Council report which highlighted Ireland’s heavy reliance on imports and the continuing decline of the domestic horticulture sector:
“Government must stop congratulating itself on strategies and support schemes and instead confront the reality of what has happened to indigenous horticulture over the past generation. The statistic that 83% of fruit and vegetables consumed in Ireland are imported should be setting off alarm bells throughout Government,” said deputy Nolan.
“The obvious question is how did we get here? Ireland is one of the world’s great agricultural nations, yet we have reached a point where the vast majority of produce on our supermarket shelves comes from abroad.”
Deputy Nolan said the most shocking aspect of the report was not simply the import figure itself but the collapse in the number of Irish growers:
“We are told there are now fewer than 70 commercial vegetable growers operating in Ireland, compared to more than 600 in the 1990s. That effectively amounts to the dismantling of a vital indigenous industry over the course of a few decades.”
The Offaly TD said the Government’s response amounted to a list of schemes and funding programmes but failed to answer the fundamental question of why domestic production continues to lag so far behind demand:
“The minister points to millions of euro in supports, yet the outcome is that four out of every five fruit and vegetable products purchased in Ireland are imported. Taxpayers and growers alike are entitled to ask whether these policies are delivering results. If they are, then where are the additional growers, where is the increased production and where is the reduction in import dependence?”
“Every imported product represents money leaving the country, jobs that could have been supported here and opportunities that have been lost to Irish producers. Consumers have repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to support Irish-grown food, but growers need a policy environment that allows them to survive, expand and compete.”
She said successive governments had failed to give horticulture the priority it deserved and warned that the continued decline of the sector cannot simply be accepted as inevitable:
“This did not happen overnight, and it did not happen by accident. It is the consequence of policy choices and political neglect over many years. Government now needs to explain how it intends to reverse this trend because no serious country should be comfortable importing 83% of its fruit and vegetables while its own horticulture sector continues to shrink.”
“The question is not whether we can grow more of our own produce. The question is why, after decades of promises and strategies, we are growing so little of it. Irish growers deserve better, and Irish consumers deserve answers,” Deputy Nolan concluded.
“Latest trade figures show Ireland imported almost €2 billion worth of fruit and vegetables last year, as the number of local horticultural producers continues to decline,” Agriland reported last month.