What does field vegetable production look like in Ireland? In Ireland, the field vegetable sector is worth almost 16% of horticulture output, valued at €77.9 million.
Lorcan Bourke, fresh produce and potato manager for Bord Bia, explains more about the sector, which is composed of many different crop types with many common challenges.
Production
The main business of fresh vegetable production is focused around large-scale grading and packing of vegetables for supermarkets and foodservice channels. While there is no significant vegetable processing sector in Ireland, there is a distinct separate market for fresh prepared vegetables sold into foodservice.
The total production area for field vegetables in 2019 was circa 4,369ha. There are around 135 field scale commercial vegetable growers, with the low numbers reflecting a significant consolidation within the sector in the past two decades.