The Irish Sugar Company (ISC) has been granted interlocutory injunctions by the High Court restraining farm leaders taking steps which could lead to growers withdrawing supplies of sugar beet.
The orders continue until the full hearing of the company's action against several leaders of the Irish Farmers' Association.
Mr Justice O'Donovan said there was a high probability of "irreparable harm" to the ISC and to its seasonal workforce of 200 if beet growers continue to refuse to supply its plants.
He found there was a fair issue to be tried between the parties. The balance of convenience lay in granting the injunctions, and damages would not adequately compensate the company if the orders were not granted now.
He warned he would not tolerate any conduct which would breach the letter or spirit of the injunctions. "If any individual person or any association of persons is shown to me to have breached the terms of those injunctions they will be severely punished in a manner which hurts them most," he said.
The judge noted there was a possibility that, while the IFA leaders, as a result of the injunction, might desist from engaging in the conduct of which the company complained, the growers might nevertheless persist in their refusal to deliver beet.
"I sincerely hope this will not happen because I believe that it would be contrary to the national interest," he said.
The judge said that if agreement could not be reached between the parties on the price to be paid for sugar beet, there was provision in the contracts to resolve it. It seemed the growers' interest would be best served by using the procedures.
The legal proceedings were taken after beet growers' refusal to supply the ISC plants in Carlow and Mallow which employ 650 people. The growers' action resulted from failure to agree a price for beet.
An interim order restraining the IFA leaders from encouraging growers not to supply the ISC plants was granted earlier this month. Yesterday the company secured interlocutory orders to the same effect.
The IFA had argued the ISC's application for injunctions was really an invitation to the court to interfere in what was essentially a commercial dispute which should be determined by the trial judge hearing the full action.
In his reserved judgment, Mr Justice O'Donovan said he was not resolving any factual issues in the case and these had to be left to the full trial of the action. He was also persuaded that it was arguable that the conduct of the IFA leaders was calculated to, and had the effect of, inducing breaches of contract between the company and growers.