One of the fastest-growing organisations in the State, the Irish Organic Farmers' and Growers' Association, has decided to return to its roots and relocate its headquarters in the midlands.
Earlier this week IOFGA opened its new national offices in Kilbeggan, Co Westmeath, in order to strengthen links with its membership. According to Ms Noreen Gibney, that membership is now over 1,000 and is growing daily as more and more producers see there is a future in organic production.
Ms Gibney, operations manager of the organisation, said the decision to go to the midlands had been taken some time ago but had taken two years to achieve.
"We noted that most of our members were finding it more and more difficult to come to the city and meet us. They found driving and, indeed, parking far too difficult," she said.
"In the end many people we knew wanted to come and see us stopped coming and we decided that something should be done to change that situation," she said.
She said the organisation had looked at the possibility of locating in Meath, Kildare, Laois and Offaly, but found that the costs were prohibitive.
"We approached the Westmeath County Enterprise Board and they put us in touch with the Kilbeggan Grand Canal Harbour Amenity Company which had a fine building," she said.
"The harbour company had in recent years attempted to find a long-term sustainable use for the stone building here on the harbour which had been extensively revamped," she said.
"The building had been done up with the assistance of Westmeath Community Development Ltd, the LEADER II company, and what really attracted us was the fact it had a fine meeting room," she said.
"So last week we moved in, lock, stock and barrel. We have five full-time staff working here and 11 more out in the country who come to the offices at least once a month.
"We are currently working with FAS to train other staff as the organic idea expands. We hope to have more workers coming on stream when they are trained," she said.
"We are already experiencing the benefits of being in the centre of the country because we are a 32-county organisation which runs an inspection and certification programme for farmers, growers and processors and others who wish to use the IOFGA certification mark on their produce," she said.
Ms Gibney said she was very pleased that quite a large number of what could be called " commercial farmers" had moved into organic production. "This means that for the first time we have enough product to sustain organic processing and we hope that processing of organic lines will begin here soon," she said.
"There are an increasing number of farmers looking at the organic option, but I am afraid we have fallen behind other countries like Germany, Denmark and Britain.
"Some years ago we had the possibility of being the leading organic producers in Europe, but now other countries, like Britain, have surged ahead," she said.
Last year there were 830 registered organic farmers in the country, and there are about 1,000 members of the association, which promotes the development of organic food production. She said the most noticeable increase in the workload of the organisation was in sourcing organic food for Irish consumers.
The Irish Organic Farmers' and Growers' Association's new telephone number is (0506) 32563.