Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the guests and agree with the Chair; it is like Groundhog Day. We are back discussing the same things over and over again. It is crazy to think that we have a sector that is worth €529 million and that we are depending on fruit and so on being imported when we have, as was already said, a climate that is suitable for what we are talking about. We have gone to a situation where we are dependent on importing stuff. I am looking at the figures for the 15-year period that say that we have gone down to 100 growers, in the IFA's estimation. Alarm bells should really be ringing in any sector, never mind the horticultural sector, if it has gone down as low as 56% of a loss in a 15-year period. If it is going that quickly, we will have no one within the next five to ten years unless it is addressed very quickly. Every bit of fruit, or anything that we eat, will have to be brought into the country.

On the potato sector, I will go through a couple of different issues. The inability to actually afford storage here meant that growers were forced to export potatoes to Portugal and Holland. We have a gap in the market between the old and new-season potato crops as a result of that. Can any of the witnesses expand on that, and see where the situation arises when challenges such as being unable to afford the storage are encountered? What does the exportation to Portugal and Holland for these reasons do to the bottom lines of producers and consumers here?