The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has said that challenges around market demand for organic produce are persisting.

The comments come as the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) reopened for applications earlier this month.

Ireland’s National Organic Strategy 2024-2030 aims to increase the share of land being farmed organically from approximately 5% this year to 10% by 2030, and to treble the wholesale value of organic output to €750 million.

IFA Organic Project Team chair John Fitzpatrick said that the reopening of the OFS is a positive development.

However, he said that market demand for organic produce is not keeping pace with the expansion of the land base.

“At farm level for some organic commodities, markets are now equal to or below their conventional counterparts.

“We cannot have a situation where organic producers are receiving less from the marketplace than their conventional counterparts.

"[The] government has to step in and support the further development of organic markets,” he said.

Fitzpatrick said that data from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) meat market report and the Good Herdsmen price report showed that the organic O grade beef price per kg was 21c/kg lower than the in-spec conventional price.

“One of the reasons for the high levels of leakage of organic beef into the conventional chain is this pricing structure.

"This is wholly unacceptable, given the extra costs associated with producing organic beef. If there is no premium for organic beef, cattle will continue to be sold conventionally,” he added.

The IFA representative said that until the under performance of organic markets is addressed targets set out in the recently launched Organic Strategy will not be achieved.

“There must be a clear financial differential between organic and convention commodity prices.

“Existing organic farmers need some security for produce that is already in the system and a premium price ahead of conventional,” Fitzpatrick said.