20 Apr 2015, 16:49
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine will meet tomorrow with the IFA vegetable growers' committee to consider challenges in the Irish horticulture sector, particularly in relation to pressures on pricing of fresh fruit and vegetables from large supermarkets.
20 April 2015
The IFA Vegetable Committee representatives will outline what they see as the necessary policies required to safeguard a vibrant indigenous horticulture sector.
Committee Chairman Andrew Doyle TD says: “Our Committee has repeatedly called for policy approaches to ensure an equitable food supply chain for all stakeholders. Tomorrow’s meeting with the IFA Vegetable Committee will afford an opportunity to hear from a sector that has had to endure particularly fierce pressure on pricing from large multiples and wholesalers.
“In the run-in to Christmas 2013 for instance, the selling of fruit and vegetables of a few cents per item provoked widespread protests among farmers and their representative organisations. We look forward to engaging with the IFA representatives on the threat that ongoing downward pressure on fresh, healthy and quality produce poses to the viability of indigenous growers.”
The meeting will commence at 2 pm tomorrow Tuesday 21 April in Committee Room 3, LH 2000.
Committee proceedings can be followed live here.
Committee proceedings can also be viewed on the move, through the Houses of the Oireachtas Smartphone App, available for Apple and Android devices.
Media enquiries to:
Paul Hand,
Communications Unit,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 4484
M: +353 87 694 9926
paul.hand@oireachtas.ie
Committee Membership:
Chairman: Andrew Doyle, (Fine Gael)
Deputies: Tom Barry (Fine Gael); Pat Deering (Fine Gael); Martin Ferris (Sinn Féin); Martin Heydon (Fine Gael); Michael McNamara (Labour); Éamon Ó Cuív (Fianna Fáil); Willie Penrose (Labour Party); Thomas Pringle (Independent)
Senators: Michael Comiskey, Denis Landy, Paschal Mooney, Mary Ann O’Brien, Brian Ó Domhnaill, Pat O’Neill