Ireland: Irish barley farmers frustrated over pricing and contract reductions

Irish grain growers have warned this year's malting barley price leaves production unviable, Irish Examiner reported on March 12.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) held a National Malting Barley Growers meeting in Co Carlow on March 10, where frustrations over pricing and contract reductions dominated discussions.

Led by IFA Grain chairman Kieran McEvoy, the meeting featured Boortmalt’s UK & Ireland managing director Stuart Sands and Barley procurement manager Jonathan Roberts. Teagasc tillage specialist Shay Phelan also provided agronomic updates for spring barley growers.

Growers voiced their dissatisfaction with the current forward price offer of €230/t, calling it "unviable in 2025" given rising land rental and machinery costs. Concerns were also raised over last-minute contract cuts and the lack of fairness in their implementation.

Boortmalt assured growers that the FOB Creil pricing mechanism — vital to the Irish malting barley sector — would remain in place and announced that a revised forward price offer would be made in the "coming days". However, Mr McEvoy stressed that the company was “left under no illusion that a higher price is needed this time round.”

The Irish Grain Growers Group (IGGG) also called on the Irish drinks sector to intervene and urge Boortmalt to offer fairer prices.

"Farmers have been repeatedly asked and encouraged to act on sustainability when managing their farms... We now have a National Climate Action Plan in place with tillage an integral part of reaching its goals," the group's chairman Bobby Miller said.

"It has been ignored by Boortmalt, which recently launched a Sustainability Plan at farm-gate level, that there are three pillars to sustainability: environment, social and economic. While we have to accept that tonnage contracts may decrease as well as increase, the timing of their decision on same is incredulous.

"Why wait until near the point of planting seed to make such a vital announcement to tillage farmers?" he added, explaining that a major frustration for farmers is that feed-grade grain, such as winter feed wheat and barley, is now more profitable per hectare than high-quality malting barley, which undergoes strict scrutiny for premium beverage brands.

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