Mushroom hauliers
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slam government subsidy as lobs are lost
• Mushroom hauliers are laying off owner-drivers in the UK and Ireland amid claims that the Irish government is subsidising one of their biggest competitors. One UK company plans to lay off 25 owner-drivers in October; several operators in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic fear they will have to follow suit after Pleroma Distribution Ltd (PDL) subsidiary Monaghan Mushrooms won a E45m Sainsbury contract to ship Irish-grown mushrooms to supermarkets in the UK.
Rival hauliers believe Monaghan won the contract because the Irish government gave PDL £2m to build the £11m
data processing centre that is essential to managing the complex. The Irish Government described the grant as an investment but the Irish Road Haulage Association claims it is a subsidy and is considering fighting it in the courts.
"We're just concerned that the Government is helping them above everyone else," says IRHA president Jimmy Quinn. "We're studying it to see what the best way to respond is but we're not impressed so far." The Sainsbury deal affects many rival hauliers because Sainsbury handles mushroom distribution for most of the UK's major grocery chains. A rival hauli
owner-drivers in the UK. "T e pricing is well below the rest of the market," he says. "We're not competing on a level playing field." Rivals believe Irish government support for PDL's Liverpool (distribution centre already tipped the balance in favour of Monaghan. But it could be months before IRHA lawyers have waded through the complex mass of regulations and documents that will determine whether the Irish Government's contribution should be tested in the courts.
No one at Monaghan was available for comment.