TEAGASC ezine / 04
SOFT FRUIT SEASON UPDATE This year will be remembered as a challenging soft fruit season. Combined with structural damage for some from the snow in March and a very late growing season, things hadn’t started that well. When the summer arrived it came suddenly. Most of the early strawberry crops did well, but as the summer progressed crops suffered due to the intense heat. Yields were reduced and fruit quality was under pressure. Of all the cultivars grown ‘Malling Centenary’ seemed to tolerate the hot conditions better. Some of the everbearing cultivars went into what’s known as ‘thermo dormancy’. This is a physiological condition brought on by a combination of long summer days length and high temperatures. As a result, the plant produces very little fruit. All of this drama resulted in a shortage of strawberries, particularly from June. A similar trend was seen with raspberry crops with earlier crops doing very well and mid-summer crops struggling in the heat. The good news is that strawberry and raspberry sales were superb with very high demand all summer long. ✽
PICTURED AT THE SOFT FRUIT CONFERENCE IN TEAGASC ASHTOWN RECENTLY, L-R, EAMONN KEHOE, GARY MCCARTHY, MICHAEL GAFFNEY, LORCAN BOURKE, KEES VAN GIESSEN, JOHAN AELTERMAN, DERMOT CALLAGHAN
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LABOUR SHORTAGES IN HORTICULTURE
arrangements for the 2019 season.
Following an initial survey in January 2018 on labour shortages in horticulture, Teagasc Horticulture Development Department commissioned a detailed report on the horticultural labour market during the summer. The focus of this survey was to surface facts about labour shortages in the various sub-sectors of horticulture production. Growers reported a significant tightening of the labour market over the past 18 months. The survey was conducted before the announcement of the DBEI pilot work permit scheme in May, which provides for 500 horticulture work permits. It appears applications for the scheme were low due to severe weather conditions and that the scheme had come when growers were already into their busy season (scheme announced on May 14). Following the main production season, interest in the scheme is growing and horticultural producers are currently applying to the scheme for current requirements and for
The main findings of the survey are; ●T here is a 14% vacancy rate across the horticulture industry ●6 7% of respondents stated that it was undermining their confidence to expand ●5 7% reported that they were finding it difficult to maintain current output ●9 0% of growers used “word of mouth” to recruit staff with most relying on this method ●G rowers cited accommodation as a challenging issue when employing new staff. 53% cited that the cost of accommodation was excessive with 43% reporting nothing suitable was available. The HIF (horticulture Industry forum) is in the process of making recommendations and proposals on the survey findings. ✽
HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Autumn/Winter 2018
