10th November 2001

By Paul Mooney

Beet growers yesterday morning (Wednesday) halted deliveries of beet until further notice in their drive to win a price increase to cover rising costs.

The move was agreed on unanimously at a meeting of grower representatives in Abbeyleix on Monday. This was called after a meeting between IFA and Irish Sugar management last Friday failed to advance the issue.

Grower pickets were in place by 7am yesterday at the gates of the Carlow and Mallow plants and at Wellington bridge.

Growers have been forced to halt deliveries as a protest against Irish Sugar's move to cut prices by £3.60 per tonne or ten per cent, IFA president Tom Parlon said yesterday at the Carlow picket.

"I was personally involved throughout the negotiations with Greencore personnel and I am stating categorically that the company's arbitration process includes a formula to cut the price of beet by £3 to £4 per tonne," he said. "This was the result of the Bacon report which Greencore commissioned and paid for and which they are now attempting to portray as independent when in reality it was designed by the company to justify their exorbitant profit margins."

Beet committee chairman Willie French claimed the company insisted that last year's price and bonuses were conditional on IFA entering a price cutting formula for future years. It was refusing to pay the contract premium of £2.754 and existing crown tare concessions, he said.

Greenshare yesterday said it fully supported the grower action. The national sugar beet quota is owned by the State and merely franchised to Irish Sugar. Growers should examine the possibility of processing their own beet, as happens in Holland, it said.

If growers continue to withhold beet supplies beyond today (Thursday) they will in effect close down the Carlow and Mallow plants, Irish Sugar's John Broderick said yesterday.