There needs to be more organic beef finishing units in Ireland to prevent the organic supply chain leaking into the conventional supply chain, economist with Teagasc Kevin Kilcline has said.

Leakage is a particular issue in the organic drystock sector and it is causing a loss of value to the sector, according to Kilcline.

A proportion of the livestock reared on organic suckler and sheep farms is being sold conventionally.

"That relates back to the issue of an unbalanced supply chain. Most of the conversion [to organics] has been by suckler farmers, with less organic beef finishing farms coming on stream who have the capacity to finish these weanlings or stores organically.

"This is also linked to a shortage of organic tillage and feed crops grown, which results in issues around organic feed availability and price and reliance on more expensive, imported concentrates," Kilcline said.

As much as 80% of organic farms in Ireland are either sheep or suckler farms, with just 70 dairy farms and very few beef finishing farms.

Targets

In order to meet our organic targets by 2030, there would need to be an additional 1,000 farmers join the Organic Farming Scheme every year.

Ireland has pledged to have a land area of 10% in organics by 2030 - currently 5% of Ireland's land area is farmed organically.

"Ireland still lags behind most of our European neighbours in terms of organic adoption. The average across the EU in 2020 was just over 10.5%, while, for Ireland, it is only now at the 5% mark.

"Despite the recent surge in the level of organic adoption, it's still relatively low in comparison to Europe," he said.

While Ireland's target is to reach 10% by 2030, Europe's target by 2030 is to achieve 25% of land area in organics.