They put huge amounts of fruit and vegetables on our supermarket shelves yet the people and companies behind many of the brands remain unknown to most of us.
Ireland’s biggest growers have charted a course through a rapidly changing marketplace, where year-round foreign imports and changing consumer tastes have transformed the industry.
In 2021, Ireland became home to the world’s largest fresh fruit and vegetable supply business.
The merger of Dublin-headquartered Total Produce, a spin-off of Irish fruit company Fyffes, with Dole Foods in the US created a new entity double the size of its nearest global competitor.
Dole plc was incorporated in Dublin and listed in the US.
“The evolution of Total Produce – previously Fyffes – has been a journey of consolidation,” says Dole’s Irish retail channel director Ger Murphy.
He looks back at a time when a multitude of small “mom and pop” growers supplied the Irish market. Now the industry looks very different.
“That consolidation started last century,” he says. “The main driver was the fact that the retailers themselves had been fragmented – all of those smaller fruit and veg companies were supplying a number of stores in their locality. That’s how that market worked in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s.
“Retailers got more sophisticated. Tesco arrived here in the ’90s, they came with central distribution in mind and all the rest followed.”
While the typical Irish shopping basket does not look terribly different from that of his parents’ generation, the year-round availability of fruit and veg has been one of the biggest developments of the past 30 years, Murphy says.
“One of the great evolutions has been the development of supply chains to bring products to the shelves in Ireland that would not have been on the shelves for 52 weeks when I was a kid.
“I remember things like easy-peeler season, things arrived and left at various points in the year. What we concentrate on at Dole is that ability to bring fruit and veg to the shelves of our customers.”
Close to the top of the food tree – and among the most visible to Irish shoppers – is Keelings.
Based in north Co Dublin, where it farms 450 out of a total of 3,000 acres, each year it produces around 200 million strawberries. Its raspberries, blueberries and bananas are commonplace.
Retail director David Keeling spends his working day at Keelings’ vast FoodCentral complex close to the northern runway at Dublin Airport.
The company has stationed a farm shop at the entrance to the sprawling industrial estate, where its distinctive branding draws the eyes of passing motorists. Half a mile away lies its distribution operation.
“It takes a lot of acres to supply Irish strawberries, just to meet demand,” he says.
Keeling is third generation and has been involved in the farming of fruit for 27 years. One of four family members on the board, he helps oversee a workforce of 2,700, of whom 1,800 are based in Ireland. Its story since the late 2000s has been one of growth.
“It was sort of 2009-10 and it was quite a tough environment with the global recession, and the Irish economy was in a difficult place,” says Keeling.
“We did some really simple research that found that Irish consumers wanted to have a relationship with Irish growers. We did some trials, then we invested in some good people to help us market the brand and we invested in the marketing and got great support from our customers and from Irish consumers.”
The first half of the year has been a busy period for the company, with almost constant planting of berries. It is competing, in many cases, with cheaper foreign imports. According to Keeling, though, the demand for a quality, Irish-grown product has offset any pricing issues.
“Because of the lack of scale and the cost of doing business in Ireland, for Irish growers to survive they do need to get a premium,” he says. “And it’s really important that people understand that and support them from a food security point of view, from a freshness point of view, from a jobs point of view.”
The company is eyeing an increase in domestic production. Keeling says it has experimented with growing strawberries in the darker months of the year, a period of time that traditionally would have proven barren.
“If you take strawberries between mid-April and mid-October, there’s quite a high percentage of supply of Irish strawberries,” he says.
“And really, the concept is that we follow the sun. So when you’re outside that season, we’re having to import from various countries around the world. We are doing some trials in terms of having strawberries in the winter.
“For the last year, we’ve had commercial production of winter strawberries grown under LED lights. And that provided a product in November and December. So extending the Irish season by eight weeks.”
Keeling says the quality of strawberries grown under this method has proven good but it remains very expensive.
Also benefiting from a rising demand for domestically produced fruit is Clarke’s Fresh Fruit in Stamullen, Co Meath.
Run by Pat and Mary Clarke, the business farms 80 acres and at the height of the harvesting season employs around 160 people.
“Fruit used to be only eaten at weekends,” says Pat Clarke. “Now it is part of every meal – it is a superfood.”
Having farmed fresh fruit in the area for more than 60 years, Pat explains why the microclimates of north Co Dublin and Meath are home to so many of these businesses.
“Here on the east coast we have the lowest rainfall in Ireland. We’re four miles from the coastline and even on hot summer days you get a nice breeze from the [Irish] sea,” he says.
Pat Clarke, owner of Clarke’s Fresh Fruit in Stamullen, Co Meath. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
“A very sunny day is great for selling strawberries – but not always for growing them. Once it is over 20 degrees it’s not great for them. They ripen quicker, they’re smaller and more premature.”
Like Keelings, the Clarkes have taken advantage of new growing methods to expand their production.
“It is much easier to grow today than when I started,” says Pat. “Everything is in cosy tunnels and protected from the weather. If it is raining today nothing changes on our farm.
“Years ago, you would have had May frost – but it is not a problem any more. Everything is grown at eye level – everyone is standing up – the tabletop system. It is much, much easier.”
He says that high winds have caused challenges over recent years but the farm is able to put out extra reinforcement and as a result has “survived very well”.
Like every successful operation in the area, the Clarkes have had to master the art of distribution – and the ability to get their product from field to plate in the most efficient manner possible.
“We pick, pack and dispatch on the same day,” says Mary Clarke. “The fruit is picked in the morning – and you could have it on your kitchen table by the evening.”
The Dublin hinterland occupied by Keelings and Clarke’s is also home to some of Ireland’s biggest potato growers. Close to the fruit companies in scale and importance – but not carrying the same brand awareness, perhaps – is Sam Dennigan & Co.
The potato giant is based in Oldtown, and is one of the country’s largest producers and distributors. Its cold storage and logistics capability has made it a big cog in the country’s supply chain.
A family-owned business, run by Joe and Sam Dennigan, it has a workforce of more than 800 employees along with three offices in Ireland and one in Spain. It handles around 50,000 tonnes of potatoes annually.
Like many of these larger producers it has its own transport fleet. About 50 growers in the region supply the company, which has three separate packing departments.
A 20-minute drive away from the Dennigans’ headquarters is Country Crest, another big potato producer.
Along with Sam Dennigan & Co, it is a crucial part of the Irish retail supplier base. Another family-owned enterprise, it is run by the Hoeys.
Its managing director, Michael Hoey, along with his brother Gabriel have built the family farm into a serious business that employs more than 400 people and supplies all the main supermarket chains with potatoes and onions.
Between them, Country Crest and Dennigan handle a large chunk of Ireland’s potato market but, in terms of a household name, Keogh’s is possibly the most familiar potato-based business to Irish shoppers.
Based in Oldtown, the family-run potato and crisp business has grown from an ambitious potato distributor and small-batch manufacturer to one that employs around 180 people and uses tens of millions of potatoes every year.
In the years since the pandemic, it has reported soaring demand for its products, which also include popcorn. Along with a prominent place on the shelves of Tesco and SuperValu, it has supplied airlines such as Ryanair, Singapore Airlines, Aer Lingus, Lufthansa and Emirates.
Demand for its luxury snacks has risen across the Atlantic, with the US market reportedly representing around 15 per cent of its sales. Against much larger international food groups, it has managed to carve out a 12 per cent share of the Irish crisp market and 14 per cent of popcorn sales.
‘Fruit used to be only eaten at weekends,’ says Pat Clarke. ‘Now it is part of every meal.’ Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
In Dublin’s Kilshane Cross is the depot of the Begley’s Fresh Produce business. It farms more than 1,000 acres and has worked closely with Irish growers for about 30 years.
Its Simply Organic brand has been operational since 1998 and has tapped into the growing demand for organic products among Irish shoppers.
The Begleys have worked closely with Lidl Ireland since the early 2000s and in 2023 signed a €1.5 million deal that enabled it to expand its sprouts and pumpkins supply over the autumn and winter months, and as a result grow its workforce.
While Dublin and Meath dominate the fruit and vegetable scene, not all of the biggest producers are based there.
The O’Sheas in Co Kilkenny have farmed on the banks of the river Suir in Piltown for around 200 years. Eight family members run the operation across 1,800 acres.
Since the early 1980s they have been running the Iverk Produce business, supplying fresh fruit and vegetables to wholesalers and retailers around the country. As the supermarket scene has evolved here, Iverk has established relationships with the traditional big names and the new arrivals such as Aldi.
For the past two years it has been supplying HelloFresh.ie with potatoes and carrots for its fresh ingredient “meal kits”.
In Co Armagh, three generations of the Gilpin family have been providing vegetables to much of the country since the 1960s.
In 2023, their company Gilfresh Produce established a farm in Dundalk, Co Louth, to expand its growing operations. Between that and its farm in Loughgall, Co Armagh, it farms more than 1,000 acres.
All of these companies are deeply integrated into the Irish retail scene and on firm ground. But they are not immune to the geopolitical challenges of the past two months. The rising cost of diesel and fertilisers is being felt – and the prospect of rising prices on the shelves now looms.
Given the low-margin nature of much of the industry and the additional costs involved, will Irish consumers still be prepared to pay a premium for home-grown produce?
According to Keeling, Irish shoppers have shown a willingness to buy local products through previous periods of economic turmoil but continued support is needed.
“Irish food is among the best in the world,” he says. “But it does require a premium for Irish growers, farmers to exist into the future. And we do need the support of retailers, consumers and the Government.
“In terms of food security, everybody wins.”