Coillte has apologised to the 630 farmers engaged in forestry partnership with the state-owned company after an Oireachtas meeting exposed numerous grievances last week.

Farmers were left with just €6,000 of the €25,000/ha worth of timber grown in plantations, IFA forestry chair Pat Collins told the Irish Farmers Journal. Out of this, they must re-invest up to €2,000 to re-plant after harvest.

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Coillte and farmers signed 693 partnerships for 12,000ha between 2003 and 2012 under 35 different schemes.

“There have been issues with Coillte taking timber and not notifying the farmer,” Collins said. This left farmers wondering what their production was, how much it sold for and what their share should be.

“They [Coillte] decide everything,” Collins said.

Insurance costs

He added that some farmers were locked out of their land and covered full insurance costs under unclear contracts. Collins also questioned Coillte’s position as both a seller of farmers’ timber and buyer for its own processing plants.

He called for a public meeting between the company and farmers, a review of contracts and compensation for those treated unfairly.

Coillte’s strategy and business development director Bill Stanley acknowledged there were issues, but told the Irish Farmers Journal that “the vast majority of partnerships are working very well”.

Coillte has opened a dedicated phone line for partnership farmers, which will lead to case-by-case reviews. It is considering holding regional clinics for farmers.

Commercial value

In the longer term, the company will put in place a system to inform partners of the commercial value of crops.

“The partner absolutely has a right to know what payments he has received and what payments he will get in the future,” he said.

He denied claims of a conflict of interest, arguing that Coillte processes only the pulp wood from thinnings and not the more valuable saw logs from final clearfell.

Stanley said many contracts were drafted when 20-year forestry premia were paid in arrears for the previous year. This has since moved forward, leaving a two-year gap between the last premium and the first payment from Coillte (see below).

He committed to making changes and honour the continuity of payments under such contracts.

While Stanley said that forest certification imposed some restrictions on farming practices, he added that no farmer should be locked out of their land and it was a “mistake” if that happened.

Widow with ‘no income’ next year

Julie Murphy planted her 90ac of land in Callan, Co Kilkenny, under a Coillte partnership after her husband died. She now cares for her three children full-time.

Her last forestry premium came in January 2017, but her contract provides for payments from Coillte from 2019 only, leaving her with no income when her eldest son is due to start college next year. After the company began thinning her plantation, she started asking questions, but said she has received no answers for the past three years.

“I haven’t been told how much timber was taken and what money it made at the mills,” she said. As a result, she does not know what her annual payment will be for the next 20 years. Part of this is based on her 55% share of the final clearfell harvest after 40 years.

“But what is profit?” she asked – the cost of roadways and other expenses needed to take the timber out was never detailed to her.

In the meantime, Julie says she is paying the full €700 annual insurance on her plantation. She has also been diagnosed with a stress-related illness.

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