Ms Orla McManus:

Already this year three plants have closed in addition to another two last year. While a lot of that has to do with input costs increases, these guys would keep going if they had some certainty over their future. Harte Peat especially is such a big supplier to our industry. There is such uncertainty and we are putting programmes of investment forward, like we are doing this week for the years 2023 to 2030. Some growers are not willing to take the risk even though they do have the support of the bigger players through the co-operative. It is a real benefit of having the co-operative because we have good governance and fairness; the smaller guys go out there and then the bigger guys have the flexibility by having the small growers. Some people might say the Irish mushroom market is saturated but we have to challenge that because mushrooms are the epitome of sustainability and the epitome of the circular economy. We need to grow our consumption of mushrooms as a blended ingredient alongside meat and as an alternative to meat or a dish in their own right.

We have the UK market. Our producer organisation has taken on board fruit growers recently so we supply into Keelings now. We have channels in France and in the Netherlands. There is huge opportunity for growth but the thing that is stopping it the moment is uncertainty. We are dealing with that with Brexit. We have dealt with Covid-19 and now we have the sterling issue. We can nearly get through all of that but if we do not have peat at the end of the day we will just not have a business. If we say to Sainsbury's and Tesco that we are not compliant we just will not have a leg to stand on. Why would they go for an Irish mushroom when no Irish mushroom can be compliant?