09 February, 2005

Ireland: The president of the Irish Farmers' Association, John Dillon, has warned Greencore of the huge discontent among tillage farmers at both the closure of the Carlow sugar factory and the Banagher Maltings in Co Offaly. Tillage farmers, angry at the planned closure of Carlow sugar factory and Banagher Maltings, are to take to the streets in Dublin on Thursday. Mr Dillon said the closure of Baanagher Maltings, with the loss of 45,000 tonnes of malting barley contracts, will have a huge negative knock on effect on an already overburdened feed grains market. Twenty thousand acres of the best of traditional malting barley land will have no market for its produce, he said.

At a meeting of tillage farmers in Portlaoise on February 5, beet and malt growers decided to voice their anger at the closures. They will protest at the Greencore AGM this Thursday, February 10 morning in the Berkley Court Hotel, Dublin. Growers will then take their protest to Leinster House to lobby politicians on what they see as Greencore's decimation of the Irish sugar and malt industries.

The IFA leader also said Greencore has failed to honour an agreement between the IFA and Guinness, whereby traditional malting barley growers were assured of a secure market for their product into the future. Mr Dillon said 20,000 acres of the best of traditional malting barley land will now have no market for its produce, and growers have limited opportunity to diversify into alternative crops or enterprises.

Minch Malt, a part of Greencore company, is to close Banagher Maltings in Co Offaly next September, affecting 350 malting barley growers in North Tipperary, Galway and Westmeath and with the loss of 10 full-time jobs and a further nine in agri-trading branches at Banagher, Borrisokane and Tullamore. The company said the decision to close the maltings plant is unavoidable in light of significant losses incurred over the past number of years and is absolutely necessary in the interests of the long term viability of the business as a whole.

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