€5bn of Food imported last year.

bbam

Was just going through the IFJ and got to the article on the amount of food we import, not just banannas and pineapples but stuff we could produce here and do produce here. It's a near 10% increase on the previous year.

I was astonished!
Surely this is a failing at some level to market, label and brand Irish produce. Surely there are opportunities for farms to diversify to fill some of these markets. Given the amount of potatoes we produce its hard to imagine that 100% of chips are produced elsewhere.

They talk of cheese being produced here, shipped to the uk for processing and then shipped back for sale, it's just madness and a missed opportunity surely.
Can anything be done ?

bob charles

just go to the fridge and look at your rocket, celery, cucumber and be astonished. All products that can be grown seasonally in Ireland. If that big ash cloud returned again and stayed for 3 months we would be starved of greens. Can I blame allot of the Irish producers for throwing in the towel, definitely not as the spec the customer is demanding is just ridiculous. The amount of perfect waste veg of all types I have seen fed to animals makes you realize that there is something seriously wrong somewhere

johngalway

bob charles wrote: »

just go to the fridge and look at your rocket, celery, cucumber and be astonished. All products that can be grown seasonally in Ireland.

That being the operative word indeed. A lot of the "celebrity" chefs are pushing seasonal veg now, and it's no bad thing, hopefully it will catch on.

bob charles wrote: »

If that big ash cloud returned again and stayed for 3 months we would be starved of greens.

Is it just me sees the political upside of that

bob charles wrote: »

Can I blame allot of the Irish producers for throwing in the towel, definitely not as the spec the customer is demanding is just ridiculous. The amount of perfect waste veg of all types I have seen fed to animals makes you realize that there is something seriously wrong somewhere

I think a lot of the customers are plain brainwashed. If there is an imperfection with a vegetable, and one that may have no bearing on it's quality apart from appearances sake, they don't buy it. Question is, why? Where did that form of thinking come from?

bbam

johngalway wrote: »

I think a lot of the customers are plain brainwashed. If there is an imperfection with a vegetable, and one that may have no bearing on it's quality apart from appearances sake, they don't buy it. Question is, why? Where did that form of thinking come from?

Yea I see that as a big problem and personally I blame the larger supermarkets for starting the trend towards perfect food images. Also to be honest our society has become fairly superficial on near all levels.

bbam

I don't have access to the computer at the moment but what was the % increase in food exports last year, was it more than 10%
If we could only get €2bn of the imports back into Irish production it would have a great boost for the economy and the agri sectors in particular.

CSU

http://www.loveirishfood.ie/news/this-is-news-as-well/

...at least we're making an effort?

bob charles

bbam wrote: »

I don't have access to the computer at the moment but what was the % increase in food exports last year, was it more than 10%
If we could only get €2bn of the imports back into Irish production it would have a great boost for the economy and the agri sectors in particular.

your dreaming unfortunately, primary producers can provide veg at the prices. Spud guys loosing money hand over fist. I know allot of these boys and can't understand how they manage to survive. the majority of greens could be produced in Ireland but it will never happen now

bbam

bob charles wrote: »

your dreaming unfortunately, primary producers can provide veg at the prices. Spud guys loosing money hand over fist. I know allot of these boys and can't understand how they manage to survive. the majority of greens could be produced in Ireland but it will never happen now

Seems so and it wouldn't be the first time either.
Just amazed that it's €5bn, a bit saddened too, are we destined to be a net importer of foods in the future?

Birdnuts

bob charles wrote: »

just go to the fridge and look at your rocket, celery, cucumber and be astonished. All products that can be grown seasonally in Ireland. If that big ash cloud returned again and stayed for 3 months we would be starved of greens. Can I blame allot of the Irish producers for throwing in the towel, definitely not as the spec the customer is demanding is just ridiculous. The amount of perfect waste veg of all types I have seen fed to animals makes you realize that there is something seriously wrong somewhere

The customer end is a problem allright - the funny thing is alot of the imported stuff is in pretty poor condition by the time it hits Irish shelves going on what I see in some of the major multiples. I grow a bit myself but do my best to source local stuff at farmers markets, online etc.

BeeDI

bob charles wrote: »

your dreaming unfortunately, primary producers can provide veg at the prices. Spud guys loosing money hand over fist. I know allot of these boys and can't understand how they manage to survive. the majority of greens could be produced in Ireland but it will never happen now

Pythagorean theorem; 24 words.
Lord's prayer; 66 words.
Archimedes' Principle; 67 words.
Ten Commandments; 179 words;
Gettysburg address; 286 words.
US Declaration of Independence; 1,300 words
EU regulations on the sale of cabbages; 26,911 words.

bob charles

BeeDI wrote: »

Pythagorean theorem; 24 words.
Lord's prayer; 66 words.
Archimedes' Principle; 67 words.
Ten Commandments; 179 words;
Gettysburg address; 286 words.
US Declaration of Independence; 1,300 words
EU regulations on the sale of cabbages; 26,911 words.

I hope you made that up, but have a strange feeling its true:(

oh Jesus its true

bogman_bass

johngalway wrote: »

I think a lot of the customers are plain brainwashed. If there is an imperfection with a vegetable, and one that may have no bearing on it's quality apart from appearances sake, they don't buy it. Question is, why? Where did that form of thinking come from?

Ithink that the recent trend of people to grow their own has shown them that a blemish is no big deal

bob charles

bogman_bass wrote: »

Ithink that the recent trend of people to grow their own has shown them that a blemish is no big deal

I was talking to a veg grower yesterday and he just said unless the cabbage etc is perfect it nowadays forget trying to sell it. He was lucky to have a bit of perfect cabbage at the moment and is on the road day and night getting it delivered, I know of another 20ac cabbage with animals standing inside it, again many of the heads were close on perfect

Conflats

I hate to pick anyone out but i feel one particular supermarket is leading the pack and the rest follow and this supermarket gives the public all this talk of them buying irish yea they do but they could insist on not screwing local produce seasonality can be overcome if proper planing takes place i dont see why polytunnels cant be built if there was enough of a return from veg production,

ANd sure wasnt it on ETG about basically 50% of the potatoes get graded out like av yield of rooster 40t/ac only ~20t getting to shelf is madness and even that report showed a woman even when told it was perfect she wouldnt buy the potato with skin blemish cos it would have taking 10 secs more to clean(even if your peeling wont make a diff for skin blemish :rolleyes:)
the main problem is the consumer esp in this time of less money 10kg of potatoes for €4-5 would give a good cheap basis to a family dinner and some cabbage or carrots for €1-1.50(if even) like turn on the radio and people are going on about not having enough for food i say teach people how to live without the frozen pizza and other convience foods

Fair enough some foods have to be imported but even cereals like porridge is great to fill ya in the morning but sure its the world we live in like i wonder if there was an interruption to food supply how long would those big fancy warehouses be about emptying(i think its a few weeks open to correction)

johngalway

Conflats wrote: »

Fair enough some foods have to be imported but even cereals like porridge is great to fill ya in the morning but sure its the world we live in like i wonder if there was an interruption to food supply how long would those big fancy warehouses be about emptying(i think its a few weeks open to correction)

I think it's actually less than one week, because of the system they operate of not having stock hang around, made, on the move, sold, rinse and repeat.