Talks scheduled for today between Boortmalt and growers' representatives have been postponed. The meeting, which would have been the first this year involving the full malt barley committee, has been deferred until Monday week, 13 March.The talks were called off by Boortmalt on Wednesday afternoon. It’s understood the reason is to allow other talks, presumably those between Boortmalt and Diageo, their main customer for Irish malt.
Talks scheduled for today between Boortmalt and growers' representatives have been postponed. The meeting, which would have been the first this year involving the full malt barley committee, has been deferred until Monday week, 13 March.
The talks were called off by Boortmalt on Wednesday afternoon. It’s understood the reason is to allow other talks, presumably those between Boortmalt and Diageo, their main customer for Irish malt.
It means that we will have moved into the planting season without any talks, a source of acute disappointment to many growers.
A number of issues need to be thrashed out, not least a pricing structure for the year ahead.
Boortmalt may feel they cannot commit a price until they have completed the renewal of an agreement with Diageo- the most recent deal ended last year- but that is precisely what they seem to expect farmers to be willing to do.
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