Mushroom, vegetable and fruit growers dependent on third country workers have said they are being hit with unsustainable wage costs after the Irish Government increased mandatory wage rates.
Minimum wage rates have increased in both Ireland and the UK. The cost of living crisis has seen wages fall in real terms relatively speaking.
All small businesses are feeling the effect of the minimum wage rises - with tight margins and other costs increasing relentlessly.
Niall McCormack the IFA's horticulture chairman, a fruit grower in Co Longford, said: “The horticulture sector operates on extremely tight margins - therefore any increase in wage costs has immediate and devastating consequences for the sector.”
