Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 17 October 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Future of the Tillage Sector in Ireland: Discussion

4:00 pm

Mr. Peter Nallen:

On the Origin Green point, I am not sure we had it the year in question when we had to import the malting barley from France, which was low protein. It is something we can definitely check. I do not know the answer. I will come back on that point.

In terms of the duration of a deal, that is agreed between Minch Malt and the IFA representing the growers. It is mutually agreed. We have not set any minimum or maximum time on that. The feeling in the IFA is that, as we move to encourage more take-up of the model and once the model is moving toward a higher proportion of people working in that way, then the maturity might be there to move to a longer term, beyond the current two year deal. Typically, it has been on a two year deal.

In regard to viability, and the income of our growers supplying what is a quality product, I cannot comment on that. I have no experience of what is available in other industries.