Sir, – I was rather shocked and disappointed last week when I discovered I had bought a pack of New Zealand apples in my well-known Irish local supermarket.
I had wrongly assumed that especially at our own apple harvest time, eating-apples sold in a major Irish supermarket would be Irish or at least European. To find that my after-lunch treat had been transported some 18,000 miles at a time when local producers had a plentiful supply of delicious fruit really upset me.
What about all our platitudes urging us to buy local and save jobs, save the planet and ensure our children inherit a country capable of providing wholesome locally grown delicious fruit and vegetables?
Last but not least, we should ensure that our excellent local fruit producers are not subjected to grossly unfair competition from the southern hemisphere.
I’d be glad to hear a valid argument to justify such imports. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL J LOWEY,
Foxrock, Dublin 18.