Nine Growers Left: Irrigation Investment Keeps Irish Carrots Coming

Only nine commercial carrot growers remain in Ireland, and one of them says irrigation investment is what kept his 2026 harvest on schedule. Philip Draper, an organic carrot grower from Birr, Co. Offaly, with more than 30 years in the sector, told Agriland that this year's harvest "only started on time because we were able to get enough water onto the crops".

The arithmetic of his business is unforgiving. Draper's Coolnagrower Agri runs a harvesting season stretching from September to March, which means full-time staff all year round and expensive machinery sitting in fields for months. Carrots are harvested to supermarket demand, not to a calendar like grass or grain, so harvesters, toppers (machines that remove the carrot tops) and tractors stay parked at the field edge, ready to move the moment an order lands.

What does irrigation actually change?

Everything, in a drought year. "Without irrigation, the growth would have been delayed and the quality would suffer," Draper said. The visible symptom is skin quality: "The skin of the carrot wrinkles during prolonged periods of drought." Once that happens, the crop fails supermarket specifications.

Growers have always battled saturated ground through winter months, but recent summer droughts have stacked a second weather problem on top of the first. Draper's response has been to buy in every mitigation available: "To guarantee a quality product, we've invested in everything that's available to get around the weather problems." That includes short-term storage capacity, which lets him fulfil orders during bad-weather spells rather than losing them. "We have the capacity to store carrots when the time comes, when things start to get tight. But so far so good, for this year's harvest," he said.

The cost base keeps climbing. "It's not as straightforward as it was years ago and it costs a lot more to produce crops now," Draper added.

Why is the machinery window so tight?

Because dry ground conditions decide when harvesting can happen at all. "You need to have good machinery that's able to get over the ground quickly when you do get a weather window," he explained. "When an order comes in, you have to be able to fulfil it."

Machinery is only half the staffing problem. Draper keeps full-time operators year-round, and finding people skilled enough to run high-value harvesters in difficult field conditions is hard. He has heard what he calls "horror stories" from other growers about staffing failures.

What is happening to carrot prices?

They are being eroded from the retail end. "All anyone wants is to be able to make a living and be able to pay your staff a proper wage," Draper said. "At the end of the day, it all boils down to the price we're getting."

His diagnosis targets supermarket competition: "They're all trying to be cheaper than the other, and that downward pressure on retail prices has eroded the price of carrots." He said retailers began selling vegetables as a "loss leader" (a product priced below cost to pull shoppers through the door), squeezing growers in the process. "The cake in Ireland is only so big, and they all wanted a slice of it."

Who is representing the nine growers?

Draper sits with the Irish Carrot Growers (Working) Group, established in 2025, which represents 95% of the Irish retail carrot supply. The group communicates the sector's core challenges to policymakers and stakeholders and pushes for workable solutions.

His argument to those policymakers is blunt: people are "starting to recognise that growers won't be there in the future unless they're allowed to make money." The remaining producers, he said, "need to be rewarded for what they are doing, because the risks that are involved are huge."

Whether 2026 turns a profit for Ireland's carrot sector remains open. Harvest conditions so far have been favourable, and Draper's irrigation, storage and machinery investments have kept orders flowing. Growers and buyers should watch whether the Irish Carrot Growers Group's engagement with policymakers converts recognition into better returns — and whether the industry's nine survivors hold that number or lose more of it.