Proposed Distilling/Malting Barley Contract Cut Totally Unacceptable – IFA

IFA Grain Chair Kieran McEvoy said that plans by Boortmalt to cut distilling/malting barley contracts in the middle of the growing season are totally unacceptable. 

“Malting barley growers have already taken pain earlier this spring with the implementation of contract cuts. After this, farmers entered into agreements with merchants and planted specific quantities of distilling/malting barley in good faith,” Kieran McEvoy said. 

“Now Boortmalt want to ignore their contract with merchants and farmers after they have planted the crops,” he said.

“Distilling/malting barley has to be grown to very exacting specs which adds to production costs. In return, growers expect a premium price for their product but now Boortmalt want to unilaterally ignore their own contracts,” he said. 

“Given the very low-income prospects for tillage in 2025, this is a further blow to a sector already on its knees,” the IFA Grain Chair continued.

“IFA will strongly resist this development and use all means available at its disposal to ensure that Boortmalt honours all existing agreements and contracts in full,” the Kieran McEvoy concluded.

“IFA believes that this proposed unilateral action by Boortmalt is also in breach of the Unfair Trading Practices legislation and it must be revisited by Boortmalt,” he said.