The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has asked to meet the maltster Boortmalt over harvest 2026 malting barley prices, amid mounting anger among growers, Agriland reports.
"We do not want to fundamentally change the agreement that exists between the IFA and Boortmalt," said John Murphy, chair of the IFA's national grain committee. "But something has to be done to put the production of malting barley back onto a premium footing." As a first step, the association will ask Boortmalt to waive its €10 a tonne handling charge deduction for 2026.
Unease has been building for months. Growers say significant increases in fertiliser, fuel and labour costs needed to be reflected in this year's prices, and the newly published price schedules have convinced many that their concerns were justified. They also report a perceived rise in buyers rejecting crops grown to malting specification.
The Irish Grain Growers' Group (IGGG) was more blunt, calling the price "an embarrassment" and the €10 handling charge one example of a weak producer pricing system. "What farmer would want to grow malting barley, to be supplied to Boortmalt, in 2027 after such an insulting price announcement?" a spokesperson said. Teagasc's recent Crops Forum also discussed how premium cereal markets in Ireland can be secured.
Photo: Mahmoud.Lad / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Agriland
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