Fears that Irish people would have to eat their Christmas dinner without home-grown Brussels sprouts this year have been dispelled by An Bord Glas, the Irish Horticulture Board.
A spokeswoman for the board said yesterday that the 700 tonnes of sprouts required for the Irish market will be available, despite the flooding of the growing fields in north County Dublin. "Despite all, it looks like we are not going to have to import sprouts this year and the harvest is on schedule," she said.
Growers in north Co Dublin had been extremely worried about their ability to service the niche market when, due to flooding earlier this year, much of the crop was destroyed. Some of them managed to replant, but within the last few weeks they have been hit by more floods which has made access to fields very difficult and caused damage to the crop.
One of the largest growers in the State, Mr Enda Weldon of Balheary, said this has been one of the most difficult harvests he has experienced. His company, AE Weldon, has supplied sprouts to the Irish market for five years.
Mr Weldon said his crop had been hit twice by the floods but was now able to say with confidence that there would be enough sprouts to go around.
He said he was better off than some farmers in the area who had completely lost their crop adding that some farmers' fields were still flooded. He estimated the cost of producing sprouts this year had doubled because of the damage the floods had done to the soil.
Nutrients had to be replaced to ensure the plants would grow and this had happened on two occasions. "I arranged extra harvesting machinery and because of that I have been able to get the crop for the Christmas period," Mr Weldon said.
"Our main problem as growers here is that it is extremely hard to predict, with the changing weather, when the harvest will be ready," he said. Fortunately, he had enough sprouts maturing in time for the Christmas demand he added.
Mr P.J. Jones of the Irish Farmers Association, said the weather conditions would drive many growers out of business this year. "There are 327 growers left in vegetable production and 50 per cent of these have their backs to the wall because of what has happened with the weather."
He urged retailers not to cut vegetable prices in the supermarkets because if they persisted in selling Irish product at low prices as lost leaders, they would hasten the demise of the Irish industry.