Grantstown Nurseries out of Ballygunner grows around 250 tons annually of eight different tomato varieties in one hectare of modern glasshouses. All the produce is supplied to the Irish market.
Business Manager David Currid described the challenges the business has faced and continues to face, mainly concerning the extreme rises in input costs, particularly those of energy. But now, just weeks out from the beginning of the next growing season, he and other Irish growers are left scrambling to find a future plant propagator.
In January each year, Grantstown Nurseries has its plants delivered from the Netherlands, having been raised by a company called Plantise. The seed was sown in the Netherlands in mid-November and the plants would arrive in Ireland in early January. Grantstown Nurseries has been dealing with Plantise for over 20 years, and ‘they’ve always produced a very good plant’.
However, last week it was made public that Plantise is closing down next spring, due to the cost of inputs. For Currid and other Irish growers who relied on the Dutch company, this is quite upsetting. They found out last week that Plantise was being wound down, and that orders that had already been placed with them for the 2023 growing season would be honored, but no new orders would be taken.
Source: irishexaminer.com