Some of Ireland's top conventional farmers are likely to move into organic farming as a result of the mid-term review of the Common Agricultural Policy, an Irish expert on organics predicted yesterday.
Mr Ger Shortle, who is manager of Teagasc's national organic farm in Athenry, Co Galway, made the prediction yesterday at the end of a series of farm "open days" which Teagasc and the Department of Agriculture and Food have been holding across the State.
"We saw quite a large number of very good conventional farmers, especially from the livestock and tillage areas, at the demonstrations over the past few weeks," he said yesterday at Mr Ernest Mackey's farm in Donard, Co Wicklow.
"Not only will farmers be able to take their single payment for their entitlements from conventional farming into the organic sector but they will also be entitled to very decent payments over the conversion period from conventional to organic," he said.
He said these payments would amount to more than €18,000 for the first years, dropping to €13,000 for the rest of the conversion period, on farms of up to 55 hectares.
"The most adaptable farmers - and especially those who will be forced to reduce the fertiliser output because of the Nitrates Directive - will and are seriously looking at the organic sector now," he said.
Mr Shortle said that despite the drive by the Department and Teagasc to bring more farmers into the sector, there were just over 1,000 registered organic farmers working 30,000 hectares, less than 1 per cent of production.
He said there were many openings for farmers who wished to go into the sector because 70 per cent of the €37 million market for organic products here was still being imported from abroad.
"We will never be able to grow organic banana or tropical fruit but there are lots of fruit and vegetables that Irish people will pay good money to buy."
Mr Mackey, who has been running a 137-hectare farm at Ballinclea House since 1997, told visitors that serious attempts would have to be made soon to ensure effective marketing of organic Irish beef.
Irish producers were losing out in the British market, and his fear was that Ireland was regressing rather than progressing in relation to overseas marketing of organic beef.
He said he was phasing out tillage on his farm in favour of beef production from his Aubrac herd, and he predicted that, from 2005, sheep would return a greater profit than cattle.
A visit was also organised yesterday on the organic vegetable farm of Mr Dominic Quinn and Ms Hilda Crampton, at Castleruddery, Donard, who have been involved in organic farming since 1990.
The couple started with one acre of vegetables and one tunnel, and now have 13 acres and nine tunnels.
They grow potatoes, leeks, scallions, most brassica crops, carrots, celery, legumes and salads, all with the use of farmyard manure on a five-year crop, rotated with two to three years of grass clover.
They also keep a small number of sheep, one cow and, occasionally, a number of pigs which are also reared organically.
The farm sells directly to the public and through some of the farmers' markets.
It gives Dominic and Hilda "a satisfactory income", they say. They also employ three other people part-time.