The Manx National Farmers’ Union has warned that a backlog of fertiliser and animal feed has caused “a huge amount of problems” for the island’s agricultural sector.
General Secretary Sarah Comish said the delays, which have now been eased, meant fertiliser was not available when needed to prepare crops for the coming season.
“If that’s not applied at the right time, and you miss your moment, then you’ve lost that effectively, you lost that cost,” she said.
The backlog arose from “various logistical reasons” at Heysham, including capacity issues at Douglas port and the impact of dredging on Steam Packet schedules.
Praised
Ms Comish praised the Steam Packet for being “very helpful”, adding: “I’m hopeful now that they have got to a point where they have moved all of that backlog.”
However, she warned the situation had been “occurring more frequently over the last few years” and called for the farming industry to be involved in discussions to prevent a repeat.
Looking ahead to winter, she said some feed crops would not now be grown. “That does put a lot more pressure on what feed will be available going into the winter,” she added.
Rising fuel prices and the impact of global conflict on production costs were also described as “a risk in the immediate future”.