Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 June 2021
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Organic Farming: Discussion
Ms Grace Maher:
I will come in briefly on that. Bluntly, the answer is "No". Again, we have not done any kind of financial measurement of this, but the committee should note that, as I said, there are 385 certified organic farmers in the country. That number has grown from 300 in 2017, so we have seen a 30% growth in the number of organic growers coming into the sector. While overall there is not a lot of movement, there certainly is the will from growers to get involved in the sector because they see it as a growing sector. We would love to see some indigenous research carried out in the context of organic horticulture in Ireland.