“There will not be enough fuel to harvest the national silage crop”, this was the warning given by the Association of Farm and Forestry Contractors in Ireland (FCI). The FCI has been monitoring green diesel (Marked Gas Oil) costs each week for more than two years on an actual quotation basis. According to its findings MGO prices have doubled since January 2022.
The body says due to this there will be lower winter fodder supplies and has warned that it would result in additional feed costs. The negative effect of the situation will more than likely have an impact on dairy and meat production on Irish farms. FCI chairman, John Hughes, says the past fortnight has “exacerbated” the association’s viability concerns for its members in their abilities to provide their services to Irish farmers due to a combination of “huge” fuel cost increases and reduced fuel supply issues.
In terms of export targets, the FCI says it will impact on Ireland’s ability to achieve it targets of more than €14 billion in dairy and meat food products that feed more than 40 million people across the world.
As an extreme measure to curb the negative impacts the FCI has since requested for the ring-fencing of fuel supplies. This as it wants a total combined and immediate short-term requirement of 200 million litres of green diesel to be ring-fenced for the farm and forestry contractor sector between the end of April 2022 and the end of September 2022.
It has written to the Ministers for Finance, Public Expenditure & Reform, Agriculture and Transport regarding the matter.
LSL News.