A new measure to support the formation and establishment of Producer Organisations (POs) in Ireland has been announced. The Early-Stage Support for Producer Organisations (ESSPO) Scheme is a multi-annual measure under the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-20237 and aims to support groups of producers to form recognised POs across various agricultural sectors.
The creation of POs is seen as a key mechanism to enable primary producers to strengthen their collective bargaining power in the food supply chain. PO members can achieve common interests by working together to pool resources, plan production, concentrate supply, improve marketing and share knowledge under the umbrella of a recognised PO.
There seven agricultural sectors eligible under the ESSPO scheme are beef, sheep, milk, potato, tillage, plant amenity, fruit and vegetables.
The ESSPO Scheme will support POs over their first three years after recognition. Grant funding, up to a maximum of €10,000 annually, will be available for administrative functions during that period.
Those grants are intended to contribute to eligible administrative costs including the engagement of administrative human resources and the purchase of relevant technology. A separate grant of €3,000 is available to cover the costs of engaging approved facilitators for legal and business advice on PO formation and the submission of an application.
Applicant POs must: fulfil a number of criteria to be considered. The PO must have been set up on the initiative of producers and be led by producers, and have a minimum of 20 members in the beef, milk and sheep sectors or have a minimum of 5 members in other sectors.
The POs must be registered as a legal entity or as a clearly defined part of a legal entity
Each PO must have a combined value of marketed production (VMP) of more than €2.5m in the fruit and vegetable sector; or a combined VMP of more than €1.5m in the potato, tillage and amenity plant sectors.
Farmers are urged to read the scheme terms and conditions and consider joining with like-minded producers to form a PO, consult an advisor and submit an application. The deadline for receipt of the first tranche of application is 28 May 2025. The scheme will be opened to receive further applications at regular intervals thereafter.
The scheme terms and conditions along with a list of approved facilitators and application forms can be found here.
All applications and queries should be submitted to the dedicated e-mail address for scheme correspondence: PO@agriculture.gov.ie
Learn more about Early Stage Support for Producer Organisations here.
