Potato growers in Ireland call for protest action outside supermarkets

Fresh Common Potato

Vegetables

Ireland

Innovation & Technology

Published Mar 28, 2024

Tridge summary

During a National Potato Meeting hosted by the IFA and attended by O’Gorman, potato growers unanimously supported protests against supermarkets due to the increasing audits and inspections related to GLOBALG.A.P and Nature’s Choice standards. The IFA president plans to discuss these issues with Bord Bia's CEO and emphasized the IFA's role in Bord Bia's technical standards committee. Gorman recognized the challenges potato growers face, including the need for sustainable prices and the impact of rising input costs. He is hopeful that the new agri-food regulator will back farmers and is considering lobbying for more powers if needed. Meetings with the CEOs of Ireland’s top food retailers, starting with TESCO Ireland, are set to address quality assurance regulations and the necessity for sustainable farmer prices.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.

Original content

Aligned to this issue is the growing insistence of supermarkets to push forward with additional audits and inspections linked to the GLOBALG.A.P schemes (which sets standards for primary production and the supply chain and Nature’s Choice standard. These matters were discussed in detail at a National Potato Meeting hosted by IFA earlier this week, which was attended by O’Gorman. Potato growers Proceedings at the potato meeting culminated with a show-of-hands, which confirmed unanimity within the room for protests to be held outside supermarkets at the behest of the IFA president and the office bearers of the National Potato Committee. Responding to the issues raised by growers, the IFA president said that he would be meeting Bord Bia chief executive, Jim O’Toole early next week to discuss these matters. Specifically, it was confirmed that the IFA is represented on the Bord Bia technical standards committee, where issues relating to quality assurance inspections and related ...

Source: Argenpapa