Dáil debates

Wednesday, 10 May 2023

Agriculture and Food Supply Chain Bill 2022: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage

 

6:42 pm

Photo of Cathal CroweCathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely will. It is always important to embody the Irish language as much as we can. I am an organic farmer and want to disclose that on the record. It is important that there is a market for finished organic beef because at the moment, a large amount of people are entering the organic scheme and there is no finishing market for them. They are going to conventional sales. The Sixmilebridge mart ran its first organic sale in recent times on 1 April. That is a good market into which people can sell. However, that will happen infrequently because the markets are weighted towards the conventional animal. That is inevitable because of the market share those farmers have in respect of livestock. However, there has been an enormous uptake of the organic livestock scheme. I became an entrant on 1 January and there are hundreds more in County Clare and thousands more nationwide. The uptake of the scheme has been enormous. Those farmers need to know there will be some market for their finished animals and they will not end up on conventional sale.

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