Beet farmers are to protest outside the Greencore annual general meeting which takes place in Jurys Hotel, Dublin, tomorrow.
The 3,700 beet growers, who are represented by the Irish Farmers Association, are on a collision course with the company over the future of the sugar industry.
All indications are that the company will close the last sugar beet-processing plant in the State at Mallow, Co Cork. It closed its Carlow processing plant in January 2005.
The EU, which published a radical reform plan for sugar processing last year, would pay €145 million in compensation should the plant be taken out of production.
However, the growers say they, not the company, should be entitled to the lion's share of any compensation from Europe as it will mean an end to their livelihood.
The IFA commissioned a special report from economic advisers which showed that growers would lose €150 million if the plant were to cease processing.
IFA president Pádraig Walshe yesterday issued a statement calling on Minister for Agriculture Mary Coughlan to make an early decision allocating the restructuring funds to growers.
"In negotiations on beet price over the past ten years, Greencore Sugar has consistently denied making super-profits of €5 million a year out of beet processing. They are now asking the Minister to accept a monopolistic profit figure of €25 million as the basis for their cash grab," Mr Walshe said.
"By closing Carlow prematurely, Greencore damaged Ireland's negotiating stance and the livelihoods of half the beet growers in the country," he added. "At the time, Greencore boss David Dilger stated publicly that closing Carlow was a commercial decision to enhance the earnings per share of the Greencore group and had nothing to do with EU compensation."
He said Mr Dilger was now attempting to resile from that decision and was trying to include Carlow in the Greencore compensation claim which should not be allowed as the closure of Carlow was driven by the development potential of the 300-acre site and its proximity to Dublin.