When Philip Meade first started selling potatoes from the four acres he grew in 1977, little did he know that the business would sprout into one of the biggest fruit and vegetable businesses in Ireland.

Today, the farm extends to 1,100 acres, growing 400 acres of potatoes, 200 acres of carrots, 75 acres of onions and about 480 acres of cereals and rotation crops.

All of the homegrown crops make their way into the company’s range of branded vegetables available in a range of supermarkets across Ireland.

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On top of that, the company imports, packages and distributes a large range of fruit and vegetables for the Irish market.

Across the growing, packing and distribution side, the company started by Philip Meade Snr has now grown to a workforce of 480, headed up by the next generation of Meades, Philip Jnr and Eleanor Meade.

The company was one of the host farmers for the recent Nuffield triennial tour of Ireland, with delegates from around the world visiting the production and packing site at Lobinstown, Co Meath.

Delegates from the 2026 Nuffield Triennial tour to Ireland listen to Eleanor Meade from Meade Farm

Speakers on the day included head of operations Eleanor Meade and also former EU commissioner Mairead McGuinness.

The first stop on the tour was of the site, with farm manager Daniel Williams, who explained a bit about the farming side of the business.

He said the land being farmed is a mix of owned and leased land, with the crops generally grown within a 25km radius of the production site at Lobinstown.

With increased demand for organic food, Daniel says they are now growing 100 acres of organic potatoes and 20 acres of organic carrots.

Interestingly, he said that they are also exploring using organic-based fertiliser on the conventional crops also and are looking into a “fertiliser-free” potato range which is not organic, so it can be sprayed with conventional chemicals for blight control, but won’t receive synthetic fertilisers.

Tests

Head of sustainability and communications at Meade Farm Jeni Meade conducted the tours of the processing site, which started at the potato plant.

A total of 52,000t of potatoes are moved through the site each year, between homegrown and purchased potatoes.

Before a box can be entered into the plant, it has to first go through lab tests for quality control for visual assessment, peel checks, cut checks along with dry matter tests.

To speed up the process, a sample of potatoes from each batch is placed in a hot box for 24 hours, which speeds up the reaction time if there are issues with the batch. This means only the highest quality potatoes go forward for processing.

Within the plant, the first of the many graders identifies second-grade potatoes and diverts these to the starch plant.

This new starch plant was built in 2022 and is the only potato starch plant operating in Ireland and the UK using potatoes grown on the farm.

The starch plant at Meade Farm.

Jeni explained that it takes 5t of potatoes to make 1t of starch and that potato starch is widely used in cooking and catering as an alternative to imported corn starch.

She said that the starch plant was the brainchild of Philip Meade Snr, who was frustrated by so many good quality potatoes making their way into animal feed because they didn’t meet the grade in terms of size and shape.

By directing these potatoes to the starch plant, it means that extra value is being generated from these potatoes.

Aside from the potato side of the business, Meade Farm is also a big player in fruit and vegetables, growing its own carrots, parsnips, onions and brassicas such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts and broccoli.

Some of these vegetables are imported during the off-season and the vast majority of the fruit and berries packaged and processed by Meade Farm are imported.

Jeni did say that they have long-term arrangements with Irish fruit and vegetable growers where these crops are grown in Ireland, specifically mentioning local tomato and apple growers.

An overview of the fruit and vegetable sorting and packaging operations at Meade Farm.

Walking around the gantry overlooking the fruit and vegetable packing halls is a sight to behold, with rows and rows of fruit and vegetable lines being processed by hundreds of staff.

Most of the fruit and vegetables arrive in large boxes and they are then sorted and cleaned and any bad produce removed before they are repackaged in smaller containers ready for retail customers across the island of Ireland.

There are a total of 60 lorry loads of produce entering the plant each day to be sorted and packaged.

Over 9,000 deliveries are made from the site annually.

Distribution of the fruit and vegetables is a seven-days-a-week task, 364 days of the year to ensure that retail shelves are kept stacked with fresh produce.

In total, there are over 9,000 loads leaving the plant each year and the business continues to grow.

Needless to say, there is huge emphasis on sustainability and Jeni explained that 86.5% of the packaging from the packhouse is recycled.

Inside in the offices, there are teams of traders buying in product from around the world and dealing with customers and suppliers.

The footprint of the potato plant and packing halls is enormous to cater for the various lines and storage facilities.

The size of the Meade Farm enterprise today is a fair testament to the hard work and dedication to quality instilled by Philip Snr in the family and business.