UUP Representatives Meet with South Down Farmers to Call on the Agriculture Minister for Potato Action!

After a recent visit by Ulster Unionist Party representatives to locals potato farms, UUP MLA, John McCallister, has said that he is "deeply concerned" about the recent plight faced by local crop farmers, due to unprecedented weather conditions over the winter months.

The South Down Assemblyman said:

"Potato farmers in Northern Ireland are facing a very uncertain future as they can't harvest their crops. Between the floods around the country in November and the subsequent freeze in December and early January, local potato farmers have been left frustrated as either water or ice has prevented them from getting potatoes out of the ground, and I am deeply concerned that this will probably result in a loss of millions of pounds to local potato industry."

Mr McCallister was accompanied by UUP party colleagues Jim Nicholson MEP, Danny Kennedy MLA for Newry & Armagh, and George Savage MLA (UUP Spokesman for the Assembly's Agriculture Committee), along with a number of local potato farmers, when they visited the farm of Mr John Patterson, outside Banbridge, to see for themselves the damage caused by recent weather conditions.

Mr McCallister also said:

"My party colleagues and I have been pushing the Agriculture Minister to not delay in getting assessments made on farms, particularly when dealing with potato growers. We want to ensure that Minister Gildernew will also raise with her Executive colleagues the wider issues that may arise, particularly, for example, in processing potato crisps and in getting supply here in Northern Ireland as a matter of urgency."

Speaking after the visit Jim Nicholson MEP said,

"In recent years potato famers have suffered heavily because of adverse weather conditions. I well remember visiting those potato farmers affected by the flooding in the South Down area in the summer of 2008.

"However, the recent cold weather has had a detrimental impact on many of our farmers and I was pleased to have visited one of these farms with some of my UUP Assembly colleague. The damage to the crop is awful and it really is a case of having to see it to believe how bad the damage is. It is a devastating blow to the farmers affected.

"Over the past few months the heavy rain meant that the potato ground was inaccessible for machinery. However, the real damage to the crop was caused by the severe frost over Christmas and the New Year causing extreme financial loss. I have every sympathy with the problems expressed to me on Friday and along with my colleagues in the Assembly will be raising these issues with the Agriculture Minister and in the Assembly's Agriculture Committee." ENDS