The market for organic farm produce is small, but growing, according to Bord Bia sheep meat and live exports sector manager Seamus McMenamin.

He said that while the sector is “very niche”, “Bord Bia’s investment in organics will grow as production grows”.

McMenamin said Bord Bia has applied to the Department of Agriculture for a full-time organic resource and is analysing “what organic product we have in the country because at the minute nobody is 100% sure. We are in a bit of chicken and egg situation. We’ve had customers coming to us from across Europe primarily looking for organic product and they’re looking for a 52- or 26-week supply. At the minute, we’re just not at the scale in any of the [organic] categories to supply that.

Interest

“We’ve had a good bit of interest from German customers for [organic] beef but we’ve had to tell them we just don’t have the scale.

“In terms of organic beef cattle, we’ve had the same since 2018.”