Séamus Kirk (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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Question 323: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the import statistics for the range of fruit and vegetables consumed here over the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12526/11]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Imports of fresh fruit and vegetables into Ireland for the years 2008 – 2010 are presented in Table 1 below. It should be noted that in the case of fruit the values include fresh/dried fruit. In the case of vegetables the values include fresh/chilled vegetables.

My Department continues to encourage the production of fruit and vegetables in Ireland and only recently I announced the provision of €4 million grant aid to 157 producers. In addition my Department administers the EU Producer Organisation Scheme which provides over €6.5m to 3 Producer Organisations

I hope to shortly receive the report of the Group that was established to oversee the implementation of the horticultural recommendations in the Harvest 2020 Report and I hope that this will be of assistance in maximising the contribution of horticulture to the Irish economy.

Table 1: Imports of fresh fruit and vegetables into Ireland 2008–2010

Source: CSO

Note: Soft fruit* includes strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, loganberries, cranberries and bilberries.

Other fruit ** includes citrus, bananas and grapes.