Lack of Irish fruit in supermarkets

reg114 wrote: »

Just curious why most of the fruit available in mainstream supermarkets is not Irish. I'm referring particularly to fruit bought out of season, currently I can buy strawberries from Belgium, raspberries from the Netherlands etc .. Why is there nowhere in ireland that is producing this fruit out of season like Belgium or the Netherlands ? I notice blueberries originate from peru and south africa. Why are we not growing this fruit year round in ireland like they seem to be able to on the continent ?

There was a wexford grower had strawberries just ten days ago.
I'm not sure where they went?

I'd say it's to do with Dutch and Belgian growers having the infrastructure of glasshouses set up and access to cheap north sea gas. I think they may now be switching to biogas from A.D. plants?
Again not here either.

And those Dutch companies are the leading importers of produce from all over the world. So it's just easier from a supermarket's point of view to deal with the Dutch companies when they can guarrentee a year round supply.

reg114 wrote: »

Just curious why most of the fruit available in mainstream supermarkets is not Irish. I'm referring particularly to fruit bought out of season, currently I can buy strawberries from Belgium, raspberries from the Netherlands etc .. Why is there nowhere in ireland that is producing this fruit out of season like Belgium or the Netherlands ? I notice blueberries originate from peru and south africa. Why are we not growing this fruit year round in ireland like they seem to be able to on the continent ?

Ya can’t compare ourselves to the likes of the Dutch in terms of growing berries, straws in particular.
Dutch berries at the moment are going for crazy money due to the weather they are having at present.

Apples or pears

Fruit grower in Ireland has to contend with colder weather, even with greenhouses.

The big one:
Where as a Dutch grower has 100 million people within a 3 to 4 hour drive.

Here you only have few million within 3 hours.

9n top of that the large scale th He Dutch etc can leverage due to such a market right on top of the means, it pays to hire planes to fly food out.

_Brian wrote: »

in Ireland we need to eat out of season fruits, it’s a public health issue and outweighs amd potential climate issue.

That’s the key, some social actions will have a measurable climate effect and what is key is balancing what is needed and what isn’t needed.

Having the population eat a wide variety of fruit and veg is a massive positive for society as a whole and so it’s acceptable.

We can’t let the current climate hysteria throw the baby out with the bath water.

Back to the Irish fruit or lack of same, another problem is the population have no interest in quality Irish produce. They want the cheapest possible product and working in a high cost system like ireland we can’t compete with that.

An Irish product that costs 20% more will sit on the shelves, while cheap fruit grown in the sea of plastic in almeria in Spain by slaves will run off the shelves.

Like environmental concerns in the EU.

All out the window for Mercousr trade, our beef which is nearly all on permanent pasture, which locks away carbon replaced at a stroke by giving Brazil a green light to burn the Amazon so they can sell beef to us.

Danzy wrote: »

Like environmental concerns in the EU.

All out the window for Mercousr trade, our beef which is nearly all on permanent pasture, which locks away carbon replaced at a stroke by giving Brazil a green light to burn the Amazon so they can sell beef to us.

I can only influence what I can influence. The deal is about German cars and not food or environmental issues.

As for Irish cattle, let’s not over sell the pasture thing. Much of irish cattle will be housed for 4 months at least with lots on our own area indoors for six months.

reg114 wrote: »

Now Im not talking about the bags of Irish apples and pears that were frozen (storage stock as is indicated on the linked bordbia table) during the summer and are now being released on to the market to maintain supply. I know tesco and the other big retailers do this en masse, hence in the middle of winter you will find copious amounts of irish apples and pears in shops. I dont believe any native fruit grows during winter in Ireland , please correct me if Im wrong.
https://www.bordbia.ie/lifestyle/information/fruit-vegetables/best-in-season-calendar/

I'm not sure you realise how the growing seasons works here?

Our climate here dictates much of what can be grown extensively. Our winters are generally cold and wet so no there are no native fruits which will grow without massive amounts of infrastructure in the form of heated glasshouse or polytunnels.

Apple and pear crops are generally harvested in late Autumn - that's when the fruit is ripe and ready to pick.

The fruit is not 'frozen' btw - it is placed in specialised stores to prevent the fruit going off.

Even home grown apples will keep for several months if properly stored.

Fruit coming in from areas like parts of South America and Aftica et - have a much longer growing season and they may be able to produce multiple crops in a year. Our temperate climate does not allow that.

The fruit produced in the Netherlands such as Strawberries are produced indoors under artificial conditions and have a very large carbon footprint. Not a model I would advocate for production .

The rules are, eat fruit in season - at this time of the year in Ireland that is apples, pears etc. 'In season' does not mean you are picking them off the tree btw. If the fruit was picked in late autumn then that fruit is 'in season'

I think its a rather modern and blind mindset to expect to have all types of fruits available all year around regardless of environmental cost or seasonality tbh.

reg114 wrote: »

I would agree and go further suggesting any fruit imported isnt climate friendly.

The status quo where huge retailers are throwing their financial might around to eliminate local producers cant last. Importing comes with a huge carbon footprint cost. As the effects of climate change become more evident , carbon taxes on imported goods will inevitably see them become more expensive which can only help local producers re-enter the market surely.

It depends. Transport isn’t that big a factor in the overall production.
Tomatoes grown outside in South Africa actually have a smaller carbon footprint than out of season ta mayors grown heat in a glasshouse

reg114 wrote: »

Im not a farmer and have zero knowledge of farming here or abroad , I posed the question initially as a curious consumer who likes eating fruit. Having contacted Tesco it was clarified to me that some apples sold in their stores here in Ireland have been thawed after storage of up to 1 year thus they have indeed been frozen. I approached them only after having seen these reports on consumer affairs programmes on UK tv in recent months. There has been an argument that freezing fruit and thawing after extended periods of time greatly reduces nutritional content which would render the fruit in question nutritionally redundant.

Thats fair enough. Seasonality is related to our climate and unless we go down the route of investing heavily in covered and heated growing that is unlikley to change. As another poster explained - counties like the Netherlands are at the hub of an European rail and road marketing and distribution network for fresh produce. They also to import large amounts of fruit from around the globe and redistribute this to other countries.

No idea about Tescos suppliers in the UK. The apples grown here which I am aware of are not frozen for sure. Here cold storage and atmospheric controls are used to ensure the apples are maintained at the correct temperatures and levels of CO² which maintains the fruits freshness. These systems are described as 'refrigerated' but that simply means that low (but not freezing) temperatures are maintained to ensure the fruit does not spoil.

Keelings who supply Irish grown apples use this type of cold / refrigerated storage technique to store their apples.

See
https://keelings.ie/keelings-apples/

The freezing or extreme chilling of fruit is why you often see fruit from such places that looks ok but once home it quickly deteriorates.
Seeing condensation inside bags is a key indicator that fruit or veg is just out of a chiller.

reg114 wrote: »

Indeed it is. I find it odd that Keelings would import a punnet of strawberries in winter from Europe only for it to be sold next to Tesco bought strawberries imported also from europe, but 50 cents cheaper than the Keelings variety. Keelings unique selling point is its irishness, importing dutch strawberries and slapping a Keelings label on them, sightly undermines their USP.

Ultimately i would like to see a sustainable environmentally friendly model of home produce being given the priority over mass produced cheaper imports. This is one of the downsides of free trade agreements and being an EU member I suppose.

Very few give a damn about climate change, if people cared they'd eat fruit and veg in season and buy Irish as well. we eat our own vegetables in our house right through the year as they're in season so it can be done,
a person looking for strawberries in Ireland in December doesn't care about the environment, A huge number of growers have been put out of business by supermarkets and consumers which is why there is few fruit and veg growers left
I have no family so don't worry too much about the end of the world in fifty years, I just put that in incase you think I'm a vegan, I just don't care, not worried

Harry Palmr wrote: »

It's probably more carbon friendly to import a containers worth of fruit from Spain or The Netherlands than grow them here - they have the infrastructure and the knowledge pumping out a few more crates costs almost nothing and the ship was sailing in our direction anyway.

Any produce coming from the sea of plastic in Spain is desperately damaging stuff. Between pollution and slavery it’s a disgrace it’s allowed happen in an EU country.