Mr. Mel O'Rourke:

I thank the Chairman. To answer Deputy Carthy's question, the horticulture use for edible horticulture in Ireland is probably 1% of what was harvested in 2019. Mushrooms make up the vast majority of the edible horticulture side. We use deep-dug peat, which is a unique product. I do not believe any alternatives are readily available. Research has been carried out as far apart as Australia and South Africa to identify alternatives but to no avail. In fact, in South Africa an alternative was proposed from sugar beet or sugar bagasse. When it was introduced to the industry there it was a failure. At the moment, further research is taking place at Wageningen University in the Netherlands but that will provide a long-term situation and will not resolve the immediate problem for the mushroom industry.

Members will probably be aware that the mushroom industry is one of our most successful horticultural businesses. At the moment we supply approximately 33% of the total mushroom market in the UK. Irish-owned companies producing in the UK supply another 25% to 30%. In total Irish-controlled mushroom producers supply approximately 60% of the market share in UK supermarket chains. That is a unique situation for any Irish food producer. We do not have an alternative. We are very small in terms of land use. We are a very low-volume industry because only a 5 cm layer of casing is put on a mushroom bed with 20 cm of compost underneath, but it is the vital part for the mushrooms to fruit.