Written answers

Thursday, 19 June 2014

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Horticulture Sector

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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20. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the steps he has taken to develop food and other export and home market opportunities from the horticultural sector with particular focus on investment in research and development in view of the EU's concern over a deficit in this area. [23714/14]

Photo of Simon CoveneySimon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Horticulture is a hugely important sector to Ireland and my Department has worked tirelessly on increasing the output and value of this sector. In fact, in 2013, Ireland’s horticultural industry, excluding potatoes, had a farm-gate output value of €314m. This represented a 6% increase on the value of output for the sector in 2012.

Mushrooms represent over one third of the value of output for the sector and a significant proportion of our crop is exported to the UK. The value of output from the mushroom sector has grown significantly in recent years on the strength of an Industry/EU co-funded mushroom promotion campaign operating on the UK market since autumn 2010. Given the success of the original 3-year mushroom promotion campaign on the UK market, Bord Bia, with support from the Industry, submitted an application for a further 3-year mushroom promotion campaign which commenced in Autumn 2013 and covers both the Irish and UK markets and will see a spend of €2.7 million over the period.

The mushroom sector has also benefited strongly from participation in the EU’s Producer Organisation Scheme which is administered by my Department. Ireland’s largest Producer Organisation, Commercial Mushroom Producers (CMP) consists of 54 mushroom growers who, through their Producer Organisations, receive substantial aid through the scheme each year.

Through the National Development Plan, a total of €13.6m was paid to applicants under the Scheme of Investment Aid for the Development of the Commercial Horticulture Sector over the period 2009-2013. This competitive grant aid scheme supports capital investments in specialised horticultural equipment and buildings that contribute to at least one of the scheme’s four objectives namely: to improve the quality of output, to facilitate environmentally friendly practices, to improve working conditions and to promote diversification of production.

A further €5 million in funding has been awarded to 163 successful projects under the 2014 Round of the Scheme. This will support investments by growers of approximately €13 million before the end of this year.

In support of the sector my Department implements the EU Marketing Standards for fresh fruit and vegetables by conducting inspections to verify these products meet quality and labelling requirements. One of the key points in these inspections is verification of country of origin labelling.

On the research front Teagasc is researching the benefits of creating new horticulture energy hubs that will allow new horticultural enterprises to reduce their energy costs while at the same time allowing the energy generator benefit from meeting their targets regarding utilisation of excess heat. Utilisation of such excess heat has the potential to reduce heating costs for some horticultural growers by up to one third. For a crop like tomatoes this could translate into a 20% reduction in overall production costs.

Teagasc is responsible for providing education and training as well as an advisory service for Ireland’s agri-food sector and has recently invested €2m in developing its horticultural training facilities at the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin. In addition following consultation with employers in the horticultural sector Teagasc are currently re-focussing their horticultural courses to meet industry demand for skilled commercial horticulture focussed graduates.

Teagasc also plan to develop a horticulture technology hub at Ashtown which will cover horticulture education, research and advisory services all under one single management structure. This should lead to strong efficiencies and synergies especially between the horticultural food production side and food research team based at Ashtown. This €5m investment will involve construction of new mushroom tunnels, glass and protected structures as well as new classrooms and seminar rooms.

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