Flahavan’s is actively looking for more organic oat growers, James Flahavan, manager of Flahavan’s has said.

“Organic has been a really good sector for us to be in. It’s gotten a lot more support in recent times,” he said, noting that there has been some apprehension among growers to convert to organic.

“We were cautious around trying to manage expectations and balance out the number of growers with demand on our side. We were definitely a bit too cautious on that.

“Our growth and our demand has continued to increase. The knock-on impact of that is that we have continued demand for growers and Irish-grown organic oats.

“We’re looking to recruit more and looking to bring more people on board,” he said.

Harvest 2024

The 2024 oat harvest is nearly complete and quality looks to be OK, Flahavan said. However, the tonnage is down on where the company would like it to be.

Most oat growers tend to grow a spring crop, he said, noting that these crops faced challenges this year too.

“What we got and received performed well, but we have to be conscious of the challenges growers had this year,” he said.

You can hear more from James Flahavan on this week’s Tillage Podcast, out on Thursday.