Applications to the Horticulture Exceptional Aid Package close on Friday, 17 June, 2022. However, soft fruit growers remain excluded.
IFA raised this issue when the scheme was announced in April. Soft fruit growers are combatting the same input costs as all other horticultural growers and those with heated glass even more so. Vegetable growers’ applications appear to be based on land declared in the Basic Payment Scheme application, which will exclude up to 80% of land farmed by larger progressive growers who operate share farming arrangements with landowners (rent the majority of their land). This needs to be revisited.
IFA Soft Fruit Chairman Jimmy Kearns said, “The protected crop sector has encountered a five-fold increase in energy costs in recent months. Across all horticulture sub-sectors, there has been a sharp increase in the cost of labour, packaging materials, fertiliser, energy, peat-based growing media and other inputs that are essential elements of production. The package falls short of what is needed, given the huge cost surge.”
“Producers are facing hugely significant decreases in margins, which cannot be recouped by price increases alone. Growers have already cut back on production for 2022 to manage cash flow. This is likely to continue unless substantial headway is made in terms of funding.”
The support measure of €2.8m will be funded from Ireland’s allocation for exceptional adjustment aid to producers in agricultural sectors that have been impacted by the Ukraine war. Payment rates depend on the number of applications for the aid package.