Representatives from Boortmalt will attend a meeting of malting barley growers next week, according to the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA).

The meeting will take place next Monday (March 10) in the Woodford Dolmen Hotel just outside Carlow town.

The meeting is being described as a "national meeting for all malting barely growers".

According to the IFA, the meeting will be addressed by Stuart Sands, Boortmalt managing director for UK and Ireland; Jonathan Roberts, Boortmalt barley procurement manager for UK and Ireland; and Shay Phelan, tillage specialist with Teagasc.

The farm organisations said that the Boortmalt representatives will give an update, including contract arrangements for 2025, and a rationale behind their recent fixed price offer.

Ahead of the meeting, Kieran McEvoy, IFA grain chairperson, said: "We would encourage all malting barley growers to attend this meeting, as there have been a number of very important developments in the Irish malting barley supply chain in recent months."

The meeting will begin at 8:00p.m.

The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) grain committee previously called on Boortmalt for a “stronger” second forward offer for malting barley in 2025.

McEvoy recently said that the first forward offer for 2025 of €230/t is “late” and “disappointing”, and that there has been “poor uptake” so far.

“Normally we would have two forward offers of 20% before Christmas, and 20% after Christmas, so this is the first late forward offer and we weren’t happy with it. It doesn’t reflect where the industry needs to be and it’s a poor signal,” he said.

McEvoy said that if there continues to be low prices in the next offers, that many farmers will “go out of business” and that “there won’t be a malting barley industry”.

“It would have to be a lot higher than €230/t in the second offers to cover the cost of production and provide a decent premium, which there has been for malting barley over feed barley,” he said.

"It’s a different crop to grow than feed barley. Unfortunately there’s no margin in field barley either, but there’s better yield protection in the field varieties. Malting barley is a very different crop, so it needs a decent premium to reflect that,” McEvoy added.