Irish whiskey is on a roll. After an incredible history over the last 150 years when it went from the largest selling whiskey in the world to where it was almost facing extinction, it is now again within sight of its historic high of 12m cases. As recently as 2008, it sold just 4.4m cases.

How many advertisements have we seen with pristine clear streams and fields of Irish barley shaking in the breeze? A drive around the fertile midlands and across to Wexford and east Cork will show you fine family farmhouses built in the past with the profits from carefully grown excellent crops of malting barley.

The present reality is different, however. Malting barley has barely moved from roughly 150,000t over the last 20 years despite the growth in whiskey production and the proliferation of new specialist breweries producing new craft beers. Both the distillers and the brewers trade on the Irishness of their product. But this, it appears, is essentially marketing spin. Of course, there is some Irish malting barley used but it would appear that the bulk of the increase in production is accounted for by increased imports of maize (or “corn”, as the Americans call it).

Estimates vary as to how much Irish grain is used in Irish spirits but the consensus now is that it is less than 50%. If that is true, then some firm view needs to be taken by the Department of Agriculture and Bord Bia. If Origin Green is to have any real meaning, there has to be some solid criteria governing the use of ingredients. The fact that the product is distilled in Ireland is hardly adequate. When we compare the labelling regulations and supermarket policies around Irish beef, we owe it to ourselves to reassess what can legitimately be portrayed as Irish in the international marketplace.

Distilling and brewing are growing, valuable industries in Ireland but credible provenance has to be one of the key attributes. Earlier this week, an IFA malting barley growers meeting was held in Wexford. These issues were raised – now they need to be pursued.

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