IMPORTANT UPDATE: Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

Do you value locally grown freshly harvested organic food? Do you value protecting the environment and not harming it? Do you value your health and the wellbeing of your family? Do you value local jobs and family farms? Do you value supporting ethical companies? Do you value quality products and excellent customer service? Do you value your time?

CONTEXT: It has been a hard year for growers and no doubt some will not survive. It has been an exceptional year, one of the worst droughts in living history has led to widespread crop failures. Filling our boxes has become increasingly difficult as other farmers we buy from both here and abroad have struggled and have increased their prices. Our bill for early potatoes this year went up by 53%.

We have lost crops, other crops have suffered and growing food, an already massively challenging endeavour has been confounded by the devaluation of fresh food by supermarkets.

We work hard to maintain a good farm, good value, good service and uphold our principles of sustainability and treating the environment right. Anything we make goes back into the farm.

I have resisted introducing price increases for the past two years, but it is increasingly difficult to offer value and service without taking action. It is simply no longer feasible to absorb the current price increases of fresh produce and increases in the continued rising costs of running a business. We are a small business and where supermarkets can make up their shortfall on other items we can’t.

At this stage I imagine you have worked out where this is going.

The numbers do not balance, we cannot ask more of our people than they are already giving, and it is unreasonable and unethical to put pressure on people who grow for us to reduce their prices. As a grower ourselves we understand the issues farmers face.

It is not always easy to balance the books, and do the right thing by your people, your customers, and the environment. We were the first company in Ireland to eliminate plastic from all our boxes. This had a cost which we did not pass on, but it was the right thing to do.

The Bottomline: 

• We are increasing prices of all our vegetable boxes and fruit bags by about 5-6%.
• We are increasing our delivery charge to €3.50 (if you are a box scheme customer your delivery charge will remain at €2.50, as long as we get our boxes back!)
• We are maintaining the minimum spend at €20.
• We are giving FREE delivery on all orders over €50.

These changes will be active immediately for web orders and from the 22nd November on the box scheme. I hope that you can see your way to understanding this price rise and deem it fair.

I do believe though that it is increasingly important that we look at the food we eat in a new light. The cheapest possible price can have a terrible cost: on the animals, on the land, on the farmers, on the workers, on our health and ultimately on the planet.

As the climate continues to change, the nature of what and how we eat and what we pay for it will change, it is only a matter of time.

Don’t underestimate the power you have and the impact of a small change on you and those around you. Eating less meat, eating seasonal local organic produce, talking about the environment and climate change with others, reducing your plastic consumption all have an immediate and powerful impact on our planet. It can be a little like a snowball effect, impacting in a positive way many more people than you will ever know.

Thank you for your support, we really value it. 

Kenneth & Jenny

www.greenearthorganics.ie