The Irish Grain Growers Group are returning to the Guinness storehouse today as they continue our campaign to highlight the challenges facing traditional malting barley growers and indeed the tillage sector as a whole.
The group – which has a very strong Laois membership – say that the recently-launched tillage sector report vindicates their campaign seeking a minimum of €200 per tonne for malting barley.
“We are already putting into motion a key aspect of the report which is to develop a framework for a Tillage Sector plan.
“There are aspects of the report which we welcome including a fair trade system (a similar model was introduced in France recently) and maybe the introduction of a logo which would distinguish between Produce of Ireland as against produced in Ireland. Commissioner Phil Hogan hinted at a similar fair trade model for Europe into the future.
“Unfortunately the fair trade model doesn’t exist when it comes to the brewing and distilling industry and the percentage of profit that grain growers receive. We are delighted with the support we are receiving from other organisations, and indeed the general public.
“We call on Diageo to live up its priorities under its sustainability and responsibility strategy. Diageo actions towards its Irish farmer suppliers is at variance with its stated priority of building thriving communities by supporting farmers and other suppliers as they help us build a sustainable value chain.
“The value chain is broken for its Irish growers as the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine report on the Future of the Tillage Sector in Ireland found with regard to the price of a pint; reproduced below.
Diageo instead chooses to hide behind its relationship with Boortmalt. Diageo claims: ‘It has no role whatsoever in negotiations regarding the price of malting barley.'”
The group say that this “is an extraordinary misrepresentation of the nature of its relationship with Boortmalt and in turn with growers”.
“Diageo is the largest purchaser of malting barley in Ireland, purchasing 130,000 tonnes of barley each year. This is the majority of the malting barley grown in Ireland.
“Given its bargaining power it clearly has a huge influence on the price received by growers. The forward selling pricing structure for malting barley was put in place at Diageo’s insistence and only applies to grain destined for Diageo.
“What impact will it have when malting barley has to be imported purely from a lack of will from Boortmalt and Diageo to engage with the issues? We are only looking for between 0.1% – 0.15% of the average retail price of Guinness of €4.30.
“The rest of the supply chain is getting 70% excluding the tax element. A minimum of €200 is needed for brewing malting barley to be grown sustainably. A simplified pricing structure needs to be put in place.”
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The LaoisToday 2017 Annual is now on sale in bookshops and newsagents around the county – this is where you can buy it
