With lots of Irish fruit and vegetables coming into season, we’re encouraged to support local and eat fresh ingredients. Tomatoes are one of the staple vegetables used in summer dishes which have just come into season. There are just six commercial tomato growers in Ireland, and the majority of the crop is grown in glasshouses.
Producing tomatoes for some of the largest retailers in Ireland, 34-year-old Martin Flynn is continuing his family’s legacy as a third-generation grower. He has built a glasshouse empire step by step in the middle of Swords, in the north of Co Dublin.
“My grandparents, Willie and Angela, are from Rush, which is a big horticulture area. They moved up here to Swords in the 1950s and built glasshouses and started growing tomatoes. They would have sold them locally along with potatoes.
“So I grew up harvesting tomatoes during my summer holidays, picking them off the plants and packaging them,” says Martin.
With a strong interest in the industry, Martin decided to study agriculture at University College Dublin, specialising in horticulture. While completing his work experience in the UK with a company called EVG (a big tomato and vegetable grower), Martin gained invaluable knowledge, which he brought back home.
“During that period, we weren’t packing any tomatoes, they were all sold loose. I realised when I went to the UK that if we wanted to upscale this business, we needed to start packing the tomatoes and get in with a retailer. And that’s what we did,” he says.
Martin left college in 2015, and guided by his father William, he focused on commercialising the business, scaling up the company under the brand name of Flynn’s Tomatoes.
Behind the scenes at Flynn’s Tomatoes in Co Dublin. \ Philip Doyle
“I brought it to the next level and got a long-term contract with Aldi, which helped us grow the business and allowed me to go to the bank and get a loan to invest in modern glasshouses and facilities. That meant we were producing tomatoes from the beginning of April to the end of November in high-tech modern glasshouses.”
Fast forward 10 years, and Martin is now the leading grower for tomatoes in Ireland, producing 60 million tomatoes a year, with 165,000 plants across two sites. Martin has supply contracts with the biggest retailers in Ireland, including Dunnes Stores, Tesco NI, Aldi, SuperValu and Lidl. The main varieties he grows are sunstream, piccolo, rainbow and cherry vine.
The power of light
However, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were the glasshouses. Martin started by researching different technologies used in the Netherlands. After a few trips, he returned with ideas and plans for upscaling the company and making his glasshouses and production unit more efficient.
“In 2015, we decided to build the main irrigation room and boiler room in two halves due to the grants available. We built one of the glasshouses and the packing house, but we have outgrown that now, which is why we have just finished a new extension,” he explains.
Martin enjoys organisation and planning, which is why tomato production is the perfect crop for him. All of their tomato plants come from Holland, and the technology is Dutch.
“We are now the largest grower of tomatoes in Ireland. The plants come in from January when they are small, and they are planted on rockwool (which is similar to insulation). Every week from April onwards, the plant is ready for harvesting. It takes eight weeks to get eight trusses on the plant; it is held up with string. When the first truss gets picked, the plant then gets dropped down. This happens week after week, while it continues to grow at the top,” he explains.
Walking through the factory floor, Martin outlines the precision of the irrigation system.
“All the irrigation (water) and nutrients come in through a tube, which is placed into the soil of the plant. Any water or nutrients that the plant doesn’t take up is sent down a tray and back to the UV steriliser and goes back out again so you’re reusing it.”
The picking trolleys run along the heating pipes, and natural gas is burned to heat the glasshouses.
“We create carbon dioxide (CO2), but the CO2 we produce goes back into the glasshouses, and the plants take it in to bring the CO2 levels up. Any gas we burn and carbon dioxide we create is put back into the plant, because they need it to grow,” he says.
The team in Flynn’s Tomatoes also take a water sample from the grow bag every two weeks, which they send over to the Netherlands to get analysed. From this, they can see what the plants are lacking and give them the nutrients they require.
The equipment is extremely expensive and high-tech; and Martin secured a grant from the Department of Agriculture under the National Development Plan (NDP) horticultural grant scheme.
“We get up to 50% grant aid on some of the building and specialised equipment. Without that, we wouldn’t have been able to expand the way we have,” says Martin.
“We took down the old glasshouses in 2024 – they had been here since the 1960s and 70s – they were outdated and inefficient. And we constructed a new modern facility that was built in time for the 2025 season,” he explains.
Martin Flynn of Flynns tomatoes in Swords, Co Dublin. \ Philip Doyle
“You’re talking in the region of €2m per hectare when you include the infrastructure, irrigation, heating and other equipment that goes with it. The risk is massive, so the retailers and the consumers must support this industry. Because if we don’t have this industry in Ireland, we will be relying on imports,” says Martin.
In recent years, Martin has learned to make time for himself, which isn’t always easy as a young entrepreneur. He sets time aside to run and play golf.
“The hard part of owning your own business is that you’re constantly on call. Even when you are off, you’re thinking about what staff you need or what you have to do tomorrow. Even going on holidays, I have to be well organised,” he says.
Martin is also involved in tillage as his ‘stress relief’, to get away from the office; he finds it very enjoyable and grows wheat, barley and rape.
“We have around 100 hectares, 90-95% of our business is tomatoes, and the tillage is a sideline, but we enjoy getting out in the summer evenings, into the fields during harvest,” he says.
Martin negotiates set prices with the retailers ahead of the growing season.
“Every year is a risk. When we plant in January, we know what we’re going to get price-wise, but the rest is unpredictable – we don’t know our yield or what the energy prices are or if there is going to be disease in the plant.
“I think it’s a little bit unfair the price that the farmer, the grower, the producer, is getting, versus what it’s sold on the shelf. That balance needs to be right.”
Input costs are constantly rising, which is causing growers huge uncertainty. Martin estimates his costs have risen by 20% in the last two years.
Attracting and maintaining workers is another major challenge.
“Being in north Co Dublin, the cost of rent is a big problem. We will have to look at on-site accommodation in the future because this summer we will probably have 50-plus staff. “People need accommodation, and I believe that if you look after people, you’ll have good staff and fewer problems,” he says.
Piccolo is the main variety Martin grows as it is very popular. The premium cherry tomato is sweet and crunchy and a little bit acidic, making it ideal for snacking or putting into a salad.
Sunstream is a mid-plum type tomato that is a little fleshier than Piccolo. It goes great with feta cheese.
The mixed coloured pack called rainbow has black, red, yellow, and orange baby plum tomatoes in it. Kids love the rainbow tomatoes, making them ideal for school lunches.
Traditional vine tomatoes are great for cooking and putting on your sandwiches. They’re known for their deep, rich flavour profile.
With lots of Irish fruit and vegetables coming into season, we’re encouraged to support local and eat fresh ingredients. Tomatoes are one of the staple vegetables used in summer dishes which have just come into season. There are just six commercial tomato growers in Ireland, and the majority of the crop is grown in glasshouses.
Producing tomatoes for some of the largest retailers in Ireland, 34-year-old Martin Flynn is continuing his family’s legacy as a third-generation grower. He has built a glasshouse empire step by step in the middle of Swords, in the north of Co Dublin.
“My grandparents, Willie and Angela, are from Rush, which is a big horticulture area. They moved up here to Swords in the 1950s and built glasshouses and started growing tomatoes. They would have sold them locally along with potatoes.
“So I grew up harvesting tomatoes during my summer holidays, picking them off the plants and packaging them,” says Martin.
With a strong interest in the industry, Martin decided to study agriculture at University College Dublin, specialising in horticulture. While completing his work experience in the UK with a company called EVG (a big tomato and vegetable grower), Martin gained invaluable knowledge, which he brought back home.
“During that period, we weren’t packing any tomatoes, they were all sold loose. I realised when I went to the UK that if we wanted to upscale this business, we needed to start packing the tomatoes and get in with a retailer. And that’s what we did,” he says.
Martin left college in 2015, and guided by his father William, he focused on commercialising the business, scaling up the company under the brand name of Flynn’s Tomatoes.
Behind the scenes at Flynn’s Tomatoes in Co Dublin. \ Philip Doyle
“I brought it to the next level and got a long-term contract with Aldi, which helped us grow the business and allowed me to go to the bank and get a loan to invest in modern glasshouses and facilities. That meant we were producing tomatoes from the beginning of April to the end of November in high-tech modern glasshouses.”
Fast forward 10 years, and Martin is now the leading grower for tomatoes in Ireland, producing 60 million tomatoes a year, with 165,000 plants across two sites. Martin has supply contracts with the biggest retailers in Ireland, including Dunnes Stores, Tesco NI, Aldi, SuperValu and Lidl. The main varieties he grows are sunstream, piccolo, rainbow and cherry vine.
The power of light
However, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither were the glasshouses. Martin started by researching different technologies used in the Netherlands. After a few trips, he returned with ideas and plans for upscaling the company and making his glasshouses and production unit more efficient.
“In 2015, we decided to build the main irrigation room and boiler room in two halves due to the grants available. We built one of the glasshouses and the packing house, but we have outgrown that now, which is why we have just finished a new extension,” he explains.
Martin enjoys organisation and planning, which is why tomato production is the perfect crop for him. All of their tomato plants come from Holland, and the technology is Dutch.
“We are now the largest grower of tomatoes in Ireland. The plants come in from January when they are small, and they are planted on rockwool (which is similar to insulation). Every week from April onwards, the plant is ready for harvesting. It takes eight weeks to get eight trusses on the plant; it is held up with string. When the first truss gets picked, the plant then gets dropped down. This happens week after week, while it continues to grow at the top,” he explains.
Walking through the factory floor, Martin outlines the precision of the irrigation system.
“All the irrigation (water) and nutrients come in through a tube, which is placed into the soil of the plant. Any water or nutrients that the plant doesn’t take up is sent down a tray and back to the UV steriliser and goes back out again so you’re reusing it.”
The picking trolleys run along the heating pipes, and natural gas is burned to heat the glasshouses.
“We create carbon dioxide (CO2), but the CO2 we produce goes back into the glasshouses, and the plants take it in to bring the CO2 levels up. Any gas we burn and carbon dioxide we create is put back into the plant, because they need it to grow,” he says.
The team in Flynn’s Tomatoes also take a water sample from the grow bag every two weeks, which they send over to the Netherlands to get analysed. From this, they can see what the plants are lacking and give them the nutrients they require.
The equipment is extremely expensive and high-tech; and Martin secured a grant from the Department of Agriculture under the National Development Plan (NDP) horticultural grant scheme.
“We get up to 50% grant aid on some of the building and specialised equipment. Without that, we wouldn’t have been able to expand the way we have,” says Martin.
“We took down the old glasshouses in 2024 – they had been here since the 1960s and 70s – they were outdated and inefficient. And we constructed a new modern facility that was built in time for the 2025 season,” he explains.
Martin Flynn of Flynns tomatoes in Swords, Co Dublin. \ Philip Doyle
“You’re talking in the region of €2m per hectare when you include the infrastructure, irrigation, heating and other equipment that goes with it. The risk is massive, so the retailers and the consumers must support this industry. Because if we don’t have this industry in Ireland, we will be relying on imports,” says Martin.
In recent years, Martin has learned to make time for himself, which isn’t always easy as a young entrepreneur. He sets time aside to run and play golf.
“The hard part of owning your own business is that you’re constantly on call. Even when you are off, you’re thinking about what staff you need or what you have to do tomorrow. Even going on holidays, I have to be well organised,” he says.
Martin is also involved in tillage as his ‘stress relief’, to get away from the office; he finds it very enjoyable and grows wheat, barley and rape.
“We have around 100 hectares, 90-95% of our business is tomatoes, and the tillage is a sideline, but we enjoy getting out in the summer evenings, into the fields during harvest,” he says.
Martin negotiates set prices with the retailers ahead of the growing season.
“Every year is a risk. When we plant in January, we know what we’re going to get price-wise, but the rest is unpredictable – we don’t know our yield or what the energy prices are or if there is going to be disease in the plant.
“I think it’s a little bit unfair the price that the farmer, the grower, the producer, is getting, versus what it’s sold on the shelf. That balance needs to be right.”
Input costs are constantly rising, which is causing growers huge uncertainty. Martin estimates his costs have risen by 20% in the last two years.
Attracting and maintaining workers is another major challenge.
“Being in north Co Dublin, the cost of rent is a big problem. We will have to look at on-site accommodation in the future because this summer we will probably have 50-plus staff. “People need accommodation, and I believe that if you look after people, you’ll have good staff and fewer problems,” he says.
Piccolo is the main variety Martin grows as it is very popular. The premium cherry tomato is sweet and crunchy and a little bit acidic, making it ideal for snacking or putting into a salad.
Sunstream is a mid-plum type tomato that is a little fleshier than Piccolo. It goes great with feta cheese.
The mixed coloured pack called rainbow has black, red, yellow, and orange baby plum tomatoes in it. Kids love the rainbow tomatoes, making them ideal for school lunches.
Traditional vine tomatoes are great for cooking and putting on your sandwiches. They’re known for their deep, rich flavour profile.
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