High wages and labour reliability are some of the main challenges holding back the vegetable sector.

Agronomist and horticultural consultant, John Hogan made the comment while speaking at the Commercial Market Opportunities in Organic Vegetable Production conference in Backweston, Co Kildare.

Many growers can only afford to hire seasonal workers for the busy growing periods in the spring and summer.

However, Hogan said that this labour is not as dependable as some growers want it to be.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s conventional or organic, we’re not working in an industry where young people want to come to work, at least any more.

“When they do come, they demand fairly high wages and sometimes the productivity isn’t what you think it should be.

“A grower spoke to me in 2018. I said that ‘getting labour is difficult, paying them is more difficult’, and he said that ‘they’re not the most difficult things anymore, it’s the reliability that’s a problem’,” added Hogan.

Galway grower Padraig Fahy said that labour accounts for about 40% of his costs running the business.

He said that some of these labour costs include weeding, crop rotation and varieties, and soil management, all without the use of many pesticides.

Technology

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, head of the organic unit in the Department of Agriculture Jack Nolan said that more growers need to look at innovative technologies to produce more vegetables.

“Horticulture really is an area that we can develop in Ireland,” he added.

“People want to buy Irish organic fruit and vegetables, so we need to supply them. We’re often told that there isn’t a market for this or that, we’re being criticised for exporting, but here we have a market at home that we are not filling.”