According to Gerry Reilly of Reilly Mushrooms in Athlone, Brexit has totally eroded the export margin for growers already. Producing 50t of mushrooms a week, all his produce is exported to the UK.

“In fact, a staggering figure of about 50 artic lorries of fresh hand-picked mushrooms go from Ireland to the UK on a daily basis,” said Reilly, who employs over 50 staff and works in the business with his wife Mary and son Kevin.

“Of the 70,000 tonnes produced annually in Ireland, over 80% ends up supplying about 52% of the UK retail market.”

The main competitors for Irish growers on the UK market are the Dutch and Polish who “produce at much lower costs than we do and could easily replace us overnight.”

Reilly has been growing mushrooms for the last 28 years and he thinks Brexit will be the hardest obstacle he will have to overcome.

“The 10% who survived the last 30 years were hit with many hard knocks. But will Brexit be the hardest one? Some or many of the 10% will fall.”

Price agreements with UK multiples were entered into when the euro was worth £0.69 to £0.71 he said.

“The decision by the UK to exit from the EU has created a currency crisis; sterling has devalued by 18% in the last nine months and by 10% in the past week. The prospects for the value of sterling for the next six months are very pessimistic. This has completely eroded our margin to a point of selling below the cost of production.”

Mushroom growers now face major uncertainty, unable to plan for their business until they know what the future holds. Reilly has invested €1m in his business in the last four years.

Crisis

“All growers directly exposed to the UK market are in crisis. For myself and my family it is a very frightening experience. We have invested heavily in our business. Today we are losing money on a daily basis as we are committed to continue supplying produce at agreed prices.”

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