Moore Produce is a family farm growing and packing potato and vegetable produce. Irish Tractor & Agri learned all about the business from Anthony Moore, who is third generation in the Co Dublin farm.
Based in North Dublin, Moore Produce specialises in growing over 300 acres of fresh potatoes and vegetables.
Pat Moore and his sons Keith and Anthony have ensured to carry their family’s business through its third generation and at present business is going strong out Naul way.
For Anthony Moore, growing potatoes has been an occupation for him as long as he can remember” myself and Keith would come home from primary school our bags would be left at the door and we would head straight out to work. Be it packing cabbage, washing potatoes or loading swedes it was a way of life which rapidly grew on us”.
Indeed Moore Produce has been immersed in the growth of potatoes and vegetables from early on. Pat explained to Irish Tractor and Agri: “We started washing swedes before the 90s which at the time wasn’t commonly done. As the years went by we heightened our standards and joined Bord Bia in 1999, from that point we also began to wash and pack our potatoes- thankfully we have never looked back.
“As well as the three of us, we currently have a team of 12 staff working alongside us. The numbers of staff can go up and down depending on the season.”
If you ask Anthony what a day consists of their farm he’ll give it to you straight. Deliveries start from 4.30am and can run right through the day until 8pm sometimes even later.
“We currently have two potato production lines, a swede line and a cabbage line which are operated every day. Roosters and new season Queens are the two potato varieties we specialise in packing from 1kg-10kg. The varieties of cabbage we grow are red, green, savoy and sweetheart cabbage.
“We supply our fresh produce to a range of outlets such as wholesalers, supermarkets and distributors.
“We work closely with Country Crest, Gilfresh Produce, Meade potatoes, Sam Dennigan and Begleys who distribute our produce to a variety of supermarkets such as Tesco, Lidl and Dunnes Stores. We also deliver directly to many local SuperValu’s in Dublin also.”
Like any grower, Moore Produce’s business is seasonal but their aim constantly stays the same. That is to be successful in every element of growing and packing potato and vegetable produce.
That continues to be the plan for Pat, Keith and Anthony as the latter outlined when asked about the current state of business.
“Business is good and has been good for the last couple of years now. It’s very wet this time of year and that can affect things too but, overall, it has been good,” he said.
The demands when it comes to this particular line of work often see Moore Produce’s staff working late at night (and sometimes in the earliest hours of the morning) in order to pack produce during busy periods.
Potato harvesting got underway for Moore Produce this year at the end of June and carried through to November “crops were exceptionally good with a great skin finish this year” so it went very much according to script for the company.
All of our produce is grown in selected soil ranging from light to heavy soil up along the north Dublin coast, Moore Produce have their harvest every morning ensuring that their clients are given the freshest potatoes and vegetables that are loved throughout Ireland.
In the last year we joined Facebook in order to give our customers an insight to the daily working on our farm being what Produce is currently being harvested to general progress on our farm throughout the year and the feedback has been outstanding.
All of our land is within 15km of our farm some local farmers offer land to us for a single crop of either vegetables or potatoes and with an additional 700 acres of grain it makes an ideal rotation for our potatoes and vegetables
Of course, a lot of the excellent work carried out is also down to the machinery Pat and his two sons opt for in order to harvest their potatoes and vegetables. In recent years we made an investment to go full gps on our farm implements from the tractors to sprayer to the fertilizer spreading in order to be more efficient and we are now starting to see the rewards of precision work.
Keith explained that New Holland is most definitely the brand of choice when it comes to the machines which the Moores drive through their hundreds of acres.
“We’re currently operating with one case and five New Holland tractors, most of our machinery would be purchased from Armstrongs,” he said.
A lot is thought of Armstrong machinery for the backup they provide be it Saturday/Sundays middle of the night they would always be there to assist during harvesting times.
Also with Cecil and the lads at Grimme Ireland only down the road from us they never seen us stuck in recent years through good and difficult harvesting seasons they would always be there to assist in any breakdowns that would arise.
“As well as the acres of potatoes and vegetables that we’re working on, we also keep 60 beef cattle that roam the surrounding grasslands of the farm.
It all helps to keep the Moores constantly busy 12 months a year. So what’s the agenda for 2018 then?
According to Anthony, it will be more of the same at Moore Produce, which should be music to their clients’ ears.
“We’ll want to go the same line again but maybe make things a bit easier on ourselves,” said the Co Dublin native.
“We feel that our customers continue to choose us because we always meet our targets and we’re reliable suppliers no matter what type of season we experience the quality will always be 110 per cent be it an order -big or small we never turn down.”
All things considered, it’s not too difficult to understand why the Moores have been going from strength to strength in North Co. Dublin
Moore Produce
Address: Belgee, Naul,
Co Dublin
Mob: 087 637 0135
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 6 No 1, February 2018
