Organic Republic: Tales of Kale & the Rise of Cork's Eastern European Consumers

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Organic Republic: Tales of Kale & the Rise of Cork's Eastern European Consumers

With sales of Organic food increasing once again, I spoke to William Doherty and Caitriona Daunt. The couple run Organic Republic, an organic produce home delivery service, as well as their own stall at a number of farmers’ markets in Cork. I spoke to Cathriona about their operation.

Oliver Moore: What’s your background Cathriona?

Cathriona Daunt: I studied French and Spanish in UCC, and then worked abroad. I also did a horticulture course here in Ireland when I returned. Work experience included a stint in a flower garden, and I was shocked at the amount of chemicals used. In fact, it was my job to spray them. I didn’t like that, and started to look around for different things. So I started working on stalls, selling olives and the like. Then I started buying veg from organic grower and importer Denis Healy to sell on, and finally, I started to go out on my own. I was called All Organic. Willy, my now husband, was working for the Kerry branch of olive stall. He left and joined up with me after two years, and we became Organic Republic. That was ten years ago, I’ve been doing this for 12 years.

OM: Do you grow your own produce, or is it all other people’s?

CD: Our own land is in conversion at the moment, so we will be supplying our own soon. We’re growing tunnel crops and a few outdoors too, and we’ve started doing wheatgrass too.

We’re near Macroom and we have a large polytunnel on one acre. We get a lot from other Irish suppliers, they meet the demand at present. Generally speaking, we don’t want to bring fruits and veg too far, so we will supplement with our own. You could say that we were growing kids, but now were growing vegetables!

OM: Who do you buy from?

CD: We purchase from Beechlawn in Galway, Philip Draper in Offaly, Tony Miller and Kristin Laubach in Dunmanway, Jonathan Doig in Rosscarbery, Stuart Kingston Farnanes and then smaller suppliers with surplus.

OM: Tell me about the direct sales- what’s involved?

CD: We have 80 customers at present. We have a default box as we call it – it’s basically what’s in season and what works for us to put together. The produce comes in on Wednesday, its packed Wednesday and Thursday and then delivered Thursday and Friday. We deliver in the city and out to Macroom and Mallow at present. Drops are direct to people’s homes or their places of work if that suits them better. Some businesses order from us for their canteen fruit baskets too.

OM: Does everyone go for the default box?

CD: No, though most do. What happens is people text, email or use facebook to tell us any changes they’d like. So I have to keep on top of it all. Our most popular box is 20E per week - that’s the main seller. They go up in 5E increments to E35 – people who juice buy the most.

OM: You’ve been at this 12 years. What’s changed?

CD: There is more of a focus on local produce – that wasn't such a concern during the boom. 10 years ago people didn't asked about seasonality, today they do. We’d love to get more Irish fruit: at the moment it’s just rhubarb, gooseberries and apples really .We’re also buying in mushrooms – it would be great to get Irish organic mushrooms delivered.

People love kale now too, and Kohlrabi is getting popular too. We’re selling a lot of beetroot to east Europeans, in fact, people from eastern Europe are a growing market for us - maybe 20% of our customers. Also, people into fitness, coming from gyms, and the juicers are regulars now. Both the markets and deliveries are less of a middle to upper class sort of thing these days too.

Organic Republic markets: Tuesday Macroom; Thursday Mahon Point; Friday Bantry; Saturday Midleton and Douglas. Find them on facebook.

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