Features
Organic West?
As one of the 103 farmers interviewed by the Western Development Commission, I was delighted to receive the report to review. My curiosity about other people's business knows no bounds. The findings were much as I and the other 102 farmers would have expected. It is, as all surveys usually are by the time they are published, already out of date with some of its figures, and one or two aspects do not appear to be addressed at all. These I will discuss later. First I must share with you the statistics and conclusions that the commission have included in their report.
Statistics
The Western Region includes counties Clare, Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, Roscommon and Sligo. In December 1999, there were 340 organic producers in this region, farming 11,972 hectares, that's 29,583 acres to you and me. This is only 0.9% of the total agricultural land in the region. 23% of the organic processing facilities of the country as a whole are in the West. Organic food is distributed through country markets, box systems and supermarkets, with the supermarkets having the lion's share: 60% of all retail sales of organic produce in the country as a whole. They are seen as the main outlet for organic produce in the future by the Commission. The Irish market for organic food is worth approximately £18 million and is estimated to increase to £68 million by 2006.How does the Commission plan to bring about the giant leap in production that is needed? They have two targets. The first is to increase the number of organic producers in the Western Region from 340 at present to 895 in the next five years and to increase the land farmed by organic methods three-fold. The second, more modest, is an increase to 620 producers in the same time scale. It is unclear if the first is what they hope for and the second what they can realistically expect, or if there will be people working towards different targets.
Proposals
This is the hoped for outcome if the recommendations contained in the blueprint for organic agri-production are successfully implemented with all our support. The key points of these recommendations are briefly as follows; the establishment of a Western Steering Group with co-ordinator, the establishment of an advisory centre in the West, training personnel to provide training to potential producers, the setting up of two demonstration farms and two experimental farms and monitoring farms for research, a feasibility study into the development of distribution channels for the small and medium enterprises in the West, and a special remit for the West which gives producers special support and information within the national marketing strategy. All of this will be committed to and funded by the public, private and voluntary sectors. In total the estimated costs are £2,916,910. These aims and objectives, for me, hold echoes of the wish lists I heard at board meetings and AGMs of IOFGA over the years and if they come true it will be great for us all. I remain sceptical however.
History
The document 'Blueprint for Organic Agri-Food Production in the West' is 78 pages long, with a good introduction to the history of organic production in Ireland and a comprehensive explanation of why the study was undertaken. The statistics and text in each section are set out clearly, though some of the people to whom I showed the document felt a few graphs would have helped, and it is easy to see that the market for organic food is growing and the supply is not there. I was glad to see I was not imagining that we, the organic farmers, are doing as well as, if not better than, our conventionally farming neighbours and that we are not giving false hope when we encourage others to convert. The retail price premia both here and abroad are very varied and not altogether understandable, with a 1% premium on organic minute steak to 36% for round steak in Galway, which to me, makes the round steak as dear as the higher quality steaks. 142% is quoted for organic chicken which is true when compared to free range but when compared to a similar sized conventional chicken the premium must be at least 300%. The document did refer to the very high cost of animal feed and the difficulty of supply. There are few farms in the Western Region suitable for cereal production and the report does state a need for a greater supply of cheaper and more easily available animal foodstuffs. However, in the specific details of action, there is no mention of how this will be achieved. It is unfortunate that so few poultry farmers were among those selected for the survey. Both eggs and white meat, organically produced, are much sought after. The survey covered only four farms which had some poultry, myself as one with only about twenty hens, and stated a full count of 143 organic laying birds. Down the road from me, my friend Uta has an organic egg production system with 240 hens. If she and others like her had been included in the survey, perhaps the subject of foodstuff would have held a higher priority.
National Symbol
Some of the budget, a mere £20,000, is to fund an agreed national organic certified symbol for Ireland. I can understand the use of one symbol for marketing purposes, but does this mean one inspection and certifying body or an agreement from all the organic organisations to use the one symbol? Will it be another symbol to put on your packaging, permission to be received from the Department? I will be watching for developments. This is where my scepticism comes in, I remember the time, cost and discussions that were necessary a number of years ago for I.O.F.G.A. to design and copyright the current symbol. I fear this recommendation may not come to pass. There is a budget of £60,000 to be administered by LEADER and producer groups by way of assistance with inter-farm transactions and bulk purchasing ( maybe this will help with cheaper foodstuffs). I am sure members of S.R.O.M will be pleased to hear that. S.R.O.M. is Shannon Region Organic Meat Co-op, which leads to another point of interest to me. The final page of the report is a glossary of terms which use almost every initial in the alphabet. Perhaps a recommendation that we use simple titles for our groups and organisations would help in the promotion of organic farming?
Gillian Westbrook has been appointed to the new position of
General Manager with IOFGA. Coming from a background in the regulatory area...
