The Fielder team has had a busy start to the new year, spending a very successful week in Northern and the Republic of Ireland. Driving the length and breadth of the island, we covered over 800 miles, taking in some iconic green pasturelands, rich arable soil types and plenty of incredible scenery.
Without a doubt growers both in the North and the South are facing many of the same issues as our English, Scottish and Welsh customers – most pertinent being the unchecked rise in raw material costs. And certainly the products within our portfolio that can help reduce fertiliser inputs proved to be very topical – namely our Stretchur-N and Fielder Phos.
It was also interesting to gain a better understanding of Brexit-issues, now that the topic struggles to gain column inches in much of the English-centric media. For example, NI is still in the EU’s single market for goods while the rest of the UK is not, meaning plants and seeds being sold from GB to NI are now subject to new checks and controls. This is directly impacting the seed business, causing significant delays at a time that many UK farmers are drilling spring crops earlier than ever before. It may be that seed is planted under stressful conditions this spring, and so a wise insurance policy could be applying seed treatment to achieve a good establishment, such as Kick-off.
And it wasn’t all work – we were lucky enough to enjoy some of the famous Irish hospitality along the way too with our contacts!
We look forward to building on the relationships made and come away more sure than ever that our innovative Fielder product range remains well suited to the Northern and Southern Irish marketplace.