Fears for thousands of jobs due to peat shortage
Updated / Saturday, 2 Jan 2021
16:41
Video Journalist
Fears are being expressed that thousands of jobs could be lost in the horticultural sector in Ireland due to a shortage of horticultural peat.
Peat is being supplied to some of those in the industry by Bord na Móna, but those involved in the sector have said that the company has informed them that supplies could run out as early as next March.
Bord na Móna last year suspended all peat harvesting on its bogs.
In Kilfinane, Co Limerick, Young Nurseries is a wholesale business supplying a wide range of Irish grown plants and herbs.
Gardeners need to find an alternative to peat
IS IT possible that 2021 is the year when the use of peat in gardening and the horticultural industry becomes a mainstream issue
The portents of this horticulture war can already be seen in the Republic and in Britain. Couple this with the growth of interest in all things green-fingered and we can reasonably expect the exploitation of our peat bogs to become the next cause célèbre.
In November, Monty Don attracted the ire of gardening traditionalists and representatives of the horticulture industry when he used Gardeners World magazine to urge garden centres not to stock peat or plants grown in peat, arguing that its extraction is not especially good for the environment.
Nursery owner says jobs at risk in horticulture industry
One of Ireland’s leading nursery owners has contended that thousands of jobs are at risk in the Irish horticulture industry due to shortage of peat production.
Larry Doran of Doran Nurseries in Timahoe, Co. Kildare, said that the Irish horticulture community had been thrown into crisis with fears that Bord na Móna will be unable to supply any peat for next year’s growing season.
“Bord na Mona previously assured the growers that they had enough stockpiled peat and compost allocated to get them through the next growing season.