Mushroom growers want new legislation stopped

New legislation for the horticulture sector, currently making its way through Stormont, should be stopped, local mushroom growers have said. Despite its broad title, the new Agriculture Bill has a relatively narrow focus on a specific set of former EU regulations related to the fruit, vegetable and mushroom sectors.

The bill allows DAERA to continue to provide funding to producer organisations, as well as promotional schemes for the wider horticulture sector.

During a briefing last Thursday, Stormont’s agriculture committee was told that 92% of mushroom growers in NI are part of a producer organisation.

However, the concern is that the funding from DAERA is becoming “discretionary” under the new bill, so money is not being guaranteed.

“We recommend that DAERA pause this bill and prioritise the continuation of the existing scheme for another three years,” said Liz Kelly from the Mushroom Producer Organisation.

MLAs were told that schemes which provide grant funding to mushroom growers are continuing in the likes of the Republic of Ireland and Scotland.

“We will very quickly see the NI mushroom sector become uncompetitive and sales will just move away. The sector could very quickly diminish,” said David Dallas from Northway Mushrooms.

SAP

New measures from the horticulture sector are to be included in DAERA’s new Sustainable Agriculture Programme (SAP).

However, mushroom growers point out that the new measures are still under development and initial indications suggest they will be mostly centred around knowledge transfer.

“Our commercial support is being potentially removed, and what is left is these knowledge transfer type schemes which we feel are not a similar replacement,” Dallas said.