Importers make hay as straw supplies down
10 truckloads or up to 600 round bales.
“It is just a matter of getting it,” he explained. “There are plenty of buyers but it is proving very difficult to source good quality straw.”
Oaten straw was available in the west and south this week for €41/bale (8x4x3) delivered — with growers being paid around €30/bale — but traders said prices were continuing to harden as supplies tightened.
The straw price lift has come as a welcome boost for cereal growers following the disastrous harvest.
However, few have been in a position to benefit from the price surge as many were tied into the contracts with buyers.
One tillage farmer in South Tipperary said he was lucky to have a stack of 8x4x4 bales of barley straw in a field. “A lad came on and took every one of them for €40/bale,” he said.
The cereal grower has a contract with a mushroom composter for the majority of his wheaten straw. He admitted that the price for this was low but he was hopeful of pushing it up.
Traders attributed the sud- den lift in straw prices to the continuing weather difficulties in the west and the recent arrival of CAP direct payments.
“A lot of farmers hadn’t the money to pay for straw up that [receiving their Basic Payment] and were putting off purchasing,” one southern trader explained. He maintained that the inability of farmers to pay would keep a ceiling on prices.