Mr. Mike Neary:

On the first point about grower numbers and grower exits, the current status of the potato sector is that we currently have about 300 commercial potato producers in the country. In the 1990s, we had something like 1,400 growers. That is an example. Taking the fruit and vegetable sector as an example, we did a census in 1998 and there were about 400 growers. Currently, we estimate on the commercial growers side, in field vegetables, that there are about 60 growers. There are roughly 250 fresh produce growers in the country. Over quite a number of years, smaller growers have exited and larger growers took up the production. In many sectors, the actual area stayed similar for a number of years. What we started to see happening in more recent years is that we have a smaller number of growers in each sector and if one of those growers is lost, then we start to lose area and acreage of crop as well. That is why there is a concern. The small growers have gone. The larger growers, which we call commercial growers in Ireland, would be most threatened.

We talked about the level of imports. In 2022, we imported about €850 million worth of produce, amounting to about 600,000 tonnes. To qualify that initially, there is a certain amount that we cannot produce in Ireland. Roughly €577 million of that value was fruit, which is the biggest import source. That includes exotic fruits such as bananas and oranges. There is seasonality. At certain times, we cannot grow crops, so we have to have imports coming in. If I am asked if there are crops we can grow in season here, we definitely can grow more. For example, we have been doing work to try to look at import substitution opportunities, such as growing more fresh potatoes for the chipping trade. That import figure is roughly 50,000 tonnes per year. We are working in collaboration with Teagasc, the IFA and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to try to encourage the uptake of the production of potatoes that can go into the fresh chipping trade. That is starting to get some traction and we are starting to make progress.

Another example is apples. That is a huge import. We import 65,000 tonnes of apples every year. We are about 3% to 4% self-sufficient. That is what we have been focusing on. There are challenges with growing apples in our climate but we have some very good apple growers that are supplying the market and get a good response from the marketplace. New orchards have been planted in Ireland over the last couple of years. It is a small area that is starting to build. That is now making progress on the Irish market. I will give an example of one grower in north County Dublin who, in conjunction with this market, was looking at growing other crops. He went into growing garlic and chillis, as an example.

In the context of the broad import issue, we see opportunities and some traction has been made, but there is a long way to go. The key thing is that it has to be viable for somebody to do. Ultimately, we could grow more carrots or more brassica, as was mentioned, but what crops have decreased? For example, in cauliflower production and some of our key brassica lines, we are growing less. We have one leek producer left in the country. We can grow those crops really successfully in Ireland, but at the end of the day, it needs to be on the basis of people doing it because they are confident about the next two or three years, they can invest in the long term and make a margin from it.

There are opportunities but there is a broader context. Professor O'Riordan mentioned the eight cross-cutting strategic objectives of the new horticultural strategy, which has called out where progress needs to be made. There are issues regarding, for example, the whole supply chain and adding a collaborative partnership right across that supply chain, from producer through to retail, where everybody benefits. The consumer benefits, the retailer cannot benefit, but the grower and facilitator also benefit. Part of the work of the new strategy is to sit down and work across the supply chain on how that collaboration can be built going forward.

The Deputy mentioned promotions. The whole market is our main focus because, outside of mushroom exports to the UK, which adds about €130 million a year, we only supply pretty well the domestic market. As was mentioned earlier, our consumption levels of produce are only half what they should be. In an ideal world, if we ate seven portions a day, we would double the market size. A big part of what we are doing with the new campaigns, on which we are spending roughly €1 million this year, is to try to engage with younger demographics in particular - the millennial cohort - to increase the consumption of fresh produce and, in the context of our own quality markets, to try to call out local Irish seasonable sustainable produce. That is really what the message is all about. That is why we are focused on the domestic market. The UK market is our only export market, which is why we are focusing on promotion there.