The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has requested a formal meeting with Boortmalt to discuss the prospects for malting barley in 2023.

The organisation’s grain committee chairman, Kieran McEvoy, is hopeful that the get-together will take place early in the New Year.

He told Agriland: “Boortmalt has already indicated that all future purchases of barley will be made through satellite merchants.

“The IFA has been pivotal in making malting barley a premium crop for Irish growers. This remains our sole objective when it comes to dealing with Boortmalt.

Turning to the wider prospects for Irish tillage sector in 2023, McEvoy confirmed that all the IFA commodity chairs had met Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue in the run-up to Christmas.

“We registered a number of tillage-related concerns with the minister. These included issues that must be cleared up with regard to the implementation of the new Nitrates Directive," McEvoy continued.

“We also asked the minister to green light an independent review, which will look at the primary need for pesticides and fungicides in Ireland.

“The EU has already agreed that such an approach should be taken at a European level. However, Ireland is different from the rest of Europe when it comes to the use of crop chemicals."

McEvoy explained that in a dry year, European growers can get away without the use of fungicides altogether, however this is not the case in Ireland.

The IFA chair also confirmed that the request for a bespoke and independent review of future crop chemical usage will form a centre piece of the association's contribution to the public consultation on the new Sustainable Use Directive.    

McEvoy acknowledged the possibility that Irish grain growers are looking at the prospect of a severe downturn in incomes next year.

“Everyone wants the war in Ukraine to end as quickly as possible,” he stressed.

“But if this turns out to be the case, then grain supplies from Ukraine will come back to normal levels.

“We made these points in the strongest possible terms to the agriculture minister. The need for additional tillage support from the government is obvious," McEvoy stated.