Organic Census 2003
Summary of Findings
There are 923 registered organic producers in Ireland as at the end of 2002. Of these, 747 have attained full organic status while 176 have begun the process of conversion to organic status. The sector is very much concentrated in the south and west of the country, with Munster and Connacht accounting for three-quarters of all organic producers. The organic sector provides 777 full-time jobs and 993 parttime jobs, plus approximately 1,800 seasonal jobs.
The total land area involved in organic production is 29,850 hectares.
23,432 hectares of this is fully
organic land while 6,418 hectares is land that is under conversion. Data
from the Central Statistics
Office indicates that there are 4.4 million hectares of land in Ireland
devoted to agriculture, meaning
that 0.7% of agricultural land is in organic production.
There are 577 organic bovine producers and a total of just under 18,000
bovine animals. There are
over 6,000 organic suckler cows in Ireland in 2002. In general beef producers
are able to sell their
animals to organic markets, rather than selling them conventionally. Only
16% of organic bovines sold in 2002 were sold as conventional livestock.
The census does not provide any statistics on prices received for organic
bovines but many producers expressed concern about prices and profitability
(see below). There are only 23 organic dairy producers with a combined
total of 649 dairy cows.
There are 286 organic sheep producers with a total of over 31,000 sheep. Most (72%) finished lambs are sold to organic markets, but most (69%) store lambs are sold conventionally.
There are 64 producers in organic egg production, 34 producers with organic goats and 25 producers with organic pigs.
As expected there are fewer producers in organic crop production than there are with organic livestock.
There are 77 producers growing organic vegetables, 40 growing organic cereals, 30 growing organic potatoes and 22 growing organic fruit.
The questionnaire also asked organic producers about the key barriers to future expansion of their organic business. The related issues of lack of markets and lack of profitability were rated as big barriers by over half of producers. Other issues include poor weather (rated by 44% as a big barrier to future expansion), over regulation (38%) and lack of information and advice (33%). While the issues highlighted are negative it is worth recording that the question posed sought negative comment and positive issues were not similarly sought in the questionnaire.
