A number of Laois tillage farmers will take part in a ‘Demonstration of Facts’ outside the Boortmalt premises in Athy on Tuesday morning in an attempt to highlight their current struggles with growing malting barley.
“We believe this situation mirrors the way the whole tillage sector has been kicked to near death the last few years,” says a statement from the group.
“Therefore we are asking all farmers to attend this demonstration. We are asking those directly linked with tillage farmers to support us including oil suppliers, contractors, hauliers, machinery sales businesses, breweries, distilleries, small businesses and the ordinary people of Ireland to support our demonstration.
“There is a crisis in tillage farming. The economic cost of production at target yields is €282 and €244 for distilling (6.5 tonnes per hectare) and brewing (7.5 tonnes per hectare) malting barley respectively; compared with €205 for winter feed barley.
“The most recent harvest price of malting barley, €154.80, barely covers cost of production excluding land rental and labour; so malting barley growers are working for nothing and would be better off leasing out their land, particularly since this can be earned tax free.”
The statement goes on to say that “no business can operate indefinitely without paying its staff” and has hit out at the IFA over a recent deal.
“The IFA in championing the deal with Boortmalt earlier this year both exaggerated the price per tonne differential between feed and malting and ignored the lower cost of production per tonne in winter feed barley,” says the statement.
“The deal negotiated does not compensate for the higher cost of production of distilling malting barley versus brewing as no additional premium for distilling malting barley is paid. The explosive growth of Irish whiskey production is being effectively subsidised by Irish malting barley growers.”
And the group are calling on the IFA to step away from negotiating on behalf of growers.
“They have led us to a situation where malting barley contracts are valueless and malting barley is no longer a premium crop to grow.
“It’s a sad reflection when feed barley far out performs malting barley when it comes to a profit margin. IFA have agreed to unworkable specification changes and pandered to the requests of Boortmalt by sacking a democratically elected chairman of the malting committee and signing up to a Memorandum of Agreement including a code of conduct which no grower has sight of let alone agreed to.
“We are calling on the IFA and all other farmer organisations to support a campaign for growers to have a minimum price of €200 for brewing spec malting barley and €220 for distilling spec malting barley for 2018.
“This we believe will help bring malting barley growing back to a status of being a premium crop. It will also help the expansion of the malting industry, bring tillage farmer income towards the average full time wage of €45,075 and help them compete with other sectors when it comes to the leasing of land.
In a lengthy and hard-hitting statement, which criticises the move of only sending out contracts after a crop is sown and closing the Boortmalt branch in Bagenalstown in Carlow without informing customers, the Irish Grain Growers group also say that farmers are walking away from the job and that “pride doesn’t pay bills”.
They are also calling on Diageo/Guinness to drop the price of a pint of Guinness by “at least 10 cent due to the fact that malting barley is so cheap to buy”.
“In 2012 they rose the price the pint by 5 cent highlighting the fact that their raw material had become more expensive to buy (malting barley jumped to approx. €250/tonne that year). This year’s harvest price is approximately €155 per tonne.”
The statement concludes that growers are looking for a minimum price of €200/tonne for brewing barley that makes beer.
“That equates to a rise of approx. 0.1%-0.15% of the retail price of the pint compared to current malting barley prices. We are not asking for much and are willing to increase our campaign on this front as Diageo/Guinness are the main drivers of the price paid for malted barley.”
The demonstration takes place at 10.30am on Tuesday, October 24, outside the Boortmalt facility in Athy.
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