The closure of the Carlow sugar factory was a "done deal", Dr Seán Brady, chief executive of Irish Sugar, told the National Tillage Conference in Carlow yesterday.
He told the Teagasc organised conference that even with the closure of the Carlow plant next month, the future of the Irish sugar industry was by no means certain. He was booed by some farmers. Addressing the estimated 600 farmers at the conference, he said that the Mallow plant is to be substantially upgraded.
When completed in time for this year's campaign in September 2005 it will be a world class beet processing and sugar manufacturing facility, he said.
The throughput will be 11,000 tonnes of beet per day and this year's campaign will be extended into January 2006.
Following the implementation of the sugar regime reforms the campaign length will be shortened. Dr Brady, whose resignation was sought by the IFA at a protest meeting in Carlow on Tuesday, also addressed the vexed issue of how the beet would be transported to Mallow from the east coast counties where most of it is grown.
"To facilitate the one factory operation, beet from the Wexford region will be diverted to Wellingtonbridge for transport to the Mallow plant by rail," he said.
"A new rail depot will also be established in Bagenalstown to assist beet growers make their deliveries.
"Planning for this depot will be with Carlow County Council before the end of the month. Once up and running two thirds of the total Carlow beet supply can be delivered to Mallow by rail," he added.
"While the Mallow plant will be upgraded and expanded, it too must embrace change and rise to the challenges of the future.
"The change programme recently agreed with our Mallow staff is a very positive move which affords the business a dimension of flexibility it so urgently needed to establish competitive manufacturing," he said.
"There is only so much Irish Sugar can do internally to cope with the reform package. We have taken a first and vitally important step by consolidating production at Mallow and thereby enhance our prospects of survival. But even this will not be enough if reform of the scale currently proposed goes through," he added.
Most "mainly tillage" farmers would need to adjust their farming operations with decoupled payments if profitability is to be maintained, according to Teagasc tillage specialist Mr Michael Hennessy and Teagasc economist Ms Fiona Thorne, speaking at the conference. "Decision making in this new environment must now be based on careful appraisal of the financial situation on the farm" said Mr Hennessy.
Detailed analysis from the National Farm Survey had shown that only the most efficient tillage farms would have the ability to hold on to the full value of the Single Farm Payment, he said.
The Teagasc specialists warned that many less efficient producers would see the value of their decoupled payment fall if they continued with existing production patterns. Teagasc researcher Mr Bernard Rice told the farmers that the era of cheap and abundant oil supplies was over and that alternative sources would be necessary over the next 15 years.
"There will be opportunities for farmers to produce biomass for energy or to convert various farm by-products or residue materials for biofuels", he said.
However, he cautioned that the opportunities are still very limited due to tight financial returns.