Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) president Tim Cullinan has warned that the horticulture sector is “haemorrhaging” as legislation to establish the agri-food regulator is delayed.

Cullinan stated that illegal trading practices in the fruit and vegetable sector will not be tolerated and that the IFA will highlight any outlawed trading practices to the relevant authorities.

“Our sustainable horticultural sector is in demise and the office of fairness and transparency must be robust and the legislation must give real powers to address these longstanding issues before the industry is completely eroded,” the leader said at an IFA horticulture meeting in Meath this week.

The area under horticulture is already under pressure and operating in crisis mode, the association’s fruit and veg committee chair Niall McCormack said.

Fight for survival

McCormack commented that the sector should be using its resources to proactively raise awareness of its contribution to food security and environmental sustainability, but is forced to fight for its own survival instead.

“It is projected that the area of field vegetables will contract by a minimum of 7% again this year. This downward trajectory cannot continue,” the committee chair told the meeting.

“Irish growers are proactive and positive by nature. At the meeting, stakeholders discussed what our industry can do in terms of self-promotion and marketing, collaboration and research to overcome challenges, but none of this is relevant if we are not in business.

“We should be shouting about the positive attributes of our sector in terms of food security and our environmentally sustainable produce. However, time and time again we are in crisis mode to save our sector. It simply cannot continue,” he warned.