Brassica growers in the UK are in the midst of a worsening crisis as producers sell their product below the cost of production to major multiples and acreage dwindles year on year.
“I am very concerned that the prices being achieved and the returns to brassica growers across the UK are below the cost of production,” said Alistair Ewan, chairman of the Brassica Growers Association. “There are plenty lows and no highs and growers of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts are all suffering. They will be taking a long hard look now at their production plans for 2005 and some growers will be looking at other alternatives such as cereals. I hate to use the word crisis, but there is massive investment going into vegetable production. Wages and other costs are spiralling, but returns are diminishing. It is hard to see where we can go from here.”
Particularly hard hit over the summer has been cauliflower. The Journal has found out that cauliflower production costs have run at 40-45p a head, but supermarkets have been paying well below that: 32-36p a head in some cases.
The problem has been further exacerbated by large processors pulling their contracts at the eleventh hour in order to source cheaper cauliflower from overseas - mainly Poland - as they too feel the supermarket squeeze. Some of the processors have either halved their orders or stopped them altogether.
Asda has told the Journal that it has been paying above cost and more than 32-36p a head “by quite some margin.” A spokeswoman for the Wal-Mart subsidiary insisted that the store’s open-book policy with its sole supplier LFP means prices are always fair. “We also have a commitment to everything that they have in the ground and cover the costs for any casualty stocks,” the spokeswoman told the Journal.
But Asda did confirm that it has changed it frozen supplier. “We have renegotiated our contracts on frozen, but we are still as heavily committed to UK product as before and the vast majority of our product is British with a small minority coming from Spain and Belgium.”
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