Craft food producers feel pinch as EU rules force expensive changes

Alan Connolly is a craft butcher who invested around £30,000 (euro38,000) bringing his abattoir and butcher's shop in Ballynacarrigy, Co Westmeath, up to EU standards. It was done under pressure from the veterinary inspectorate, but he doesn't blame them, although he says "those rules bring fierce expense".

"Small places like this are not going to survive," he says, "I am the third generation in this business and I don't think there is any more to be got out of it. The returns are going down every year. It's a combination of the supermarkets and these rules and regulations," he says.

Frank Murphy in Midleton, Co Cork, is famous for his black puddings, made from a recipe handed down from his grandmother.

A few months ago, he was told he would have to stop making the puddings unless he did significant renovations to his premises. "If you're to do everything according to the book, it would be impossible to produce small amounts profitably. If they were to enforce them to the letter of the law, there is no way my operation would be justified.

"The way I see the industry has gone from the old days - when you made a profit, you had enough for yourself and to invest in the business. Now anything you make is going back into the business and you're not making a wage yourself - we're like small farmers now. The regulations have got so stringent and are so demanding, it's unprofitable to stay in business."

Near Castletownshend in West Cork, Sally Barnes runs the Woodcock fish smokery, employing three people all year round and six in the run-up to Christmas. She has done two Open University courses to skill up. She smokes wild salmon mainly, and last year won the Irish Food Writers' Award for her fish. She supplies Fortnum and Mason in London, has customers in Germany and all around Ireland.

"The salmon season is 32 days in the year. Last year, I was closed for effectively eight days of those 32 days drawing up HACCP procedures," she says.

She spent £3,000 last year putting in a concrete apron, on pest control (she had none) and new chemical cleaners.

She was told in October she must have testing done in an approved laboratory - she still has not been given a list of approved labs. She has been told that all fish must be frozen prior to smoking - "blast freeze, defrost at Christmas, but it's not fresh smoked fresh fish".

On November 16th, her busiest time of year, she was served with an Improvement Order and told she had two weeks to show proof that she was seeking to build a new workshop.

She is confused by the different interpretations of the regulations.

"I saw a new smokery nearby which is allowed to do things I wouldn't be allowed to do . . . different officer. It's not a fair system at the moment,"she said.