Mr. Con Traas:

In the general horticultural sector, there is a range of crops that can be pretty much whole year-round productions. There is a certain number of crops, such as broccoli, general brassicas, and so on. There are also crops that we do not grow here at the moment at a large scale. These include onions and so on. While they were grown to a certain extent in the past, they can be a bit tricky to grow here. As I mentioned earlier, there are things like certain types of potato which are imported. This is not because we cannot grow them here, but because we do not process that particular type of potato here, or whatever reason. There are, therefore, many different factors at play there. We could increase our production three times over, which would be a sizable amount of land, compared to what we already have, which is around 18,000 ha.

The same applies in how much more apples we could produce. We could produce a certain amount more. Yet, again, when one is working in an open marketplace, there are certain limits to that.

On the positive side, in the last couple years there have been a few changes in Teagasc. There has been more emphasis on this. Just yesterday, it advertised a couple of new posts. These are permanent positions, one of which is in relation to fruit production. The other is in relation to the immediate response to the ongoing peat issue. Teagasc is hopeful that it can come up with a mechanism whereby it can take a few crops, and get them going in a more commercial context. Then, it will be able to go back to Government and say that it funded those two positions. Teagasc will also be able to say it has proved it can do this, but it needs technical advice for growers. The growers are not there, so we first need to find existing farmers who want to switch over to horticultural farming. Then, we need to assist them in doing so. That assistance might include anything from finance, because they might need finance to start out, to technical advice. They will need help in marketing. As well as this, they will also need buy-in from the whole retail system, such as wholesalers, packers, retailers and consumers. It is a big jigsaw puzzle. We have many pieces to put together to make it work.

However, that is where we are starting from because we do not have an industry or set of industries with critical mass. There are few areas in which we have a critical mass in Ireland, such as soft berries, strawberries, mushrooms, which we actually export, and so on. They are successful. We import some strawberries, but we also export some on a year-round basis. We export massive amounts of mushrooms.

When one looks at crops, such as tomatoes, and so on, they will always need a small land base, because they are so productive. That will not make a huge difference. They have their own issues in having to heat glasshouses, and so on.

It is a difficult question to answer exactly. To go back to the apples situation, we can definitely triple or quadruple our land area. We will be doubling what we are doing in many vegetables crops. There is no question about that. Right now, however, some growers are saying that they need to cut back on what they are doing because they are not making enough money and that it is just not working out for them. They are getting older and less expansion-minded. They are having trouble getting employees. Some of the work is fairly tough. I would not like to encourage it just on the basis of what is good for the country, without good market signals that the price is going to be there to support it.