Ireland: Worst fruit season for 20 years
The damage done by the weather has seen yields fall by up to a third this year.
"I've never witnessed a year like this and I'm at it more than 30 years," Jimmy Kearns, chair of the Irish Soft Fruit Growers' Association, said.
"In the southeast where I am now, I think we've experienced more bad weather than anywhere else. It has rained almost every day - heavy downpours."
Kearns produces fruit for large retailers, but he says that much if this year's fruit is not of sufficient quality to make the grade, being too misshapen.
As well as this the wet weather and humid night times have created mould issues on the fruit.
Tom Malone, from the family-run business Malone's Fruit Farm, in Ballon, Co Carlow, says it has been two decades since he saw such bad conditions.
"The year started wrong - March was too fine and plants came on too fast. Then April and May were cold and bees weren't out pollinating the strawberries. Class 1 fruit is down around 60%," he said.
Source: independent.ie
