To say it has been a tough year for growers is probably an understatement. Droughts, floods, and waterlogged fields made growing and harvesting conditions extremely challenging, especially when combined with increased costs and little change in returns.
Stephen McCormack, Managing Director at McCormack Family Farms based in County Meath, Ireland, said he cannot remember a more stressful year in his career.
"We couldn't sow anything for three weeks in July as it was too wet, which left us struggling to have Irish produce in August and September. We were praying for rain in June just to relieve the drought situation and have been praying for it to stop ever since. I can honestly say I was extremely glad to see our growing season end.
"It wasn't just our own production that struggled normally; we can import from Europe during the season if we have shortages, but they were also dealing with extreme weather and shortages when we could get produce, the ferries were delayed and unreliable, so instead of getting produce here in one or two days it was taking three to five."
Stephen said that growers are well known for their resilience, but many, including himself saw big losses this year and it is not sustainable. "We can't take two very bad years in a row, all the talk on climate change is really worrying us even more, is this the way our weather pattern will change too? I certainly hope not, but this year was exceptionally bad and if we don't get a better one next year the production of food will be in serious trouble. It's not like in the manufacturing industry, our whole livelihood depends on a 4 to 12-week growing period from each sow or planting of crop, to lose crops after the cost and effort it takes to get a crop to market and end up leaving it in the field due to bad quality or unable to harvest is not sustainable."
McCormack grows herbs and baby leaf salads from May to October and imports them for the rest of the winter and early spring. Stephen said having Origin Ireland on his bags of salads and Herbs is the most important part of his business, but you can't win against Mother Nature.
"Sales this year have also been below average, this is also down to the weather, people eat less salad when it is wet and cold. We have also yet to see any substantial increase in returns from the retailers and wholesalers to meet our higher input costs, which is another big issue for our company. We do understand it's not easy to put prices up, but we need to be realistic. A decline in Irish produce means more imports and this will push the prices even higher, if that happens and it will, as growers are giving up every year, it will be too late to say we should have done better to support our growers. Decrease input costs or prices must go up, the very thing which we need to sustain a healthy population is the very area that's suffering the most."
Labor also remains a major problem; without staff, companies can't operate. Despite a bad year, Stephen said he is still investing in machinery to try to ease the pressure on manpower and systems to help cut down the use of chemicals for weed control, especially and hoping by the year 2025, we will have 0% usage of any weed control by chemical.
"I don't like to be all doom and gloom, and we must go on and produce food. We must just hope that Mother Nature is kinder to us next year."
For more information:
Stephen McCormack
McCormack Farms
Tel.: +353 46 902 56 95
stephen@mccormackfarms.ie
www.mccormackfarms.ie