Ian Morrison, field operations manager with Kettle Produce, said: “We’ve had a terrible summer, and going along with all that rain have been extremely low light levels, so the crop has struggled to get any good growth.”
The upshot of the poor growing season means that carrots are generally going to be shorter in size this year.
“The roots are shorter in length,” said Morrison. “They are going to be within specification, and they’ll be above the minimum size, but not by a great deal.”
The reduction in carrot size also means overall tonnages are likely to be down, with average yield anticipated to fall by, depending on the area, between 10 to 25 per cent on last year.
“Last year was a bumper season,” Morrison points out. “But we’re still down when compared with a normal year.”
Martin Evans, chief executive of Fresh Growers and chairman-elect of the British Carrot Growers’ Association, said the problems with the crop have only really become apparent recently. “We weren’t able to tell the size issue until the crop matured and we could see the effects.”
But of course, one of the more serious problems for the industry, is how the stored product will keep. Morrison said: “Although September was quite good, October has been very wet and the soil is saturated. Most of the diseases that affect carrots thrive in wet conditions and we’re storing product down in extremely wet conditions.”
He said it is too early to tell yet quite how affected the crop will be, as there are no signs of any problems, but with some of the crop staying in the ground for another seven months, there are not many in the industry feeling too optimistic. “The crop appears to have handled the situation robustly, but I’m not sure I believe the health reports,” said Evans. “If we look at other products affected by the weather, shelf life has been down. We’re storing now for lifting in May, and I’m not sure I believe the health reports, they’re looking better than they should be.”
Morrison echoes his views: “The crop is going to be in the ground for seven months and that’s a worry. As each month goes past, there’s a greater chance of some disease developing.
“We need a good dry winter and that would be a help, but we fear some of the damage will have been done already.”
Evans said it is going to be vital for the industry to keep a close monitor of its crops throughout the winter months, and he fears the weather has not finished with them yet.
“It’s also quite possible we’re in for a cold winter this year, but because of the poor summer weather, the quality of the straw that we’re using to insulate the crop is poor.
“Some growers are switching over to plastic, but the cost of plastic is up 40 per cent because of the rise in cost of oil. It seems that fate is against us.”
And it is not just the cost of plastic which has been affected by the increasing cost of crude oil; agricultural fuel is up by 71 per cent, fertiliser up 35 per cent and steelwork a further 20 per cent. On top of all this, labour is also up seven per cent.
The increasing costs are, of course, leading to producers to question the viability of carrot production.
David Martin, of Plantsystems, said: “Many growers are reviewing their production of all vegetable crops as it is becoming too expensive and much too risky.
“Growers have been struggling along at the point of survival, and now with the weather, combined with costs being so high, some are not feeling confident of producing again.”
Evans said the situation is proving difficult. “Carrots are expensive to produce, and people might start to question the balance of crops in their business.”
He said they need to get the rise in costs across to their customers: “Otherwise we’re going to struggle from a production point of view. If we can’t keep the margins onboard, we’ll see an area reduction.”
To add to the misery, at the same time as rising costs, most of the industry has seen a fall in prices as well, reports Morrison: “On average the overall price is down by around £10 a tonne, and that’s putting pressure on primary producers. It’s pretty difficult at the moment.”
Up until now the industry has managed to maintain almost 100 per cent UK produce on the supermarket shelves, but if the situation remains the same, Evans fears that may slip.
“We’ve invested considerably in the industry to maintain that 100 per cent position, we don’t want to lose that. We’re not looking for massive increases, just inflationary movements.”
SPROUTING CHANCE
British sprout growers are confident of a good season, but they need to break out of the two-week Christmas trap, says a leading producer.
Will Haines, who farms in Chipping Campden said: “At the moment, for two weeks of the year, we have to quadruple our production, and that’s difficult for any sector to do, but we have to do it. We need to increase demand throughout the rest of the year.”
In a bid to raise the profile of the humble sprout, Haines, along with the British Sprout Growers’ Association, has been the driving force behind the annual British Sprout Festival, now in its third year. The event, held in Chipping Campden, saw more than 1,000 people visit last weekend.
He said the two-day sprout extravaganza had been a huge success: “We’ve been focusing on the health benefits of sprouts. There’s a huge amount of vitamin C in a sprout and we need to make sure people are aware of things like that.”
As well as offering information, recipes and samples from the town’s Sheep Market, local pubs, restaurants and tearooms also competed to offer the most exciting sprout menus.
“The whole thing started off as a bit of a leg pull, but it’s proved a big success. We have people coming back year after year,” Haines added.
He said the industry does not receive EU subsidies at present: “We have to stand on our own two feet, so this is one way of getting off our backsides and doing something to promote sprouts.”
Despite the ongoing popularity of the festival, this year’s event almost did not happen, said Roger Welberry, president of the BSGA: “We were planning to rest it this year, but we’d had so many positive enquiries from members of the public, we felt we owed it to them to stage it once again.”
Haines said he is aiming to encourage people to use sprouts differently: “We need to stop people simply boiling the sprouts to death then serving them as a cold mush next to their Christmas turkey. We want to try and generate a steady trade throughout the season.”
The BSGA will also be showing off some startling sprout dishes at the BBC Good Food Show on November 24 to 28.
Haines said the previous year’s show had proved a huge success: “Our stand was right next to Jamie Oliver’s, which was very busy whenever he was there. We went through 60 gallons of sprout soup.”
As for this year’s harvest, despite fears of sprouts facing unprecedented pressures from Phoma leaf spot and ringspot, many growers are confident of a good year.
Haines said: “The quality of the crop this year is excellent, it is a lot better than it has been for years.”
The view is echoed by Welberry. He said: “The crop is looking good. The weather has not been good for anyone, but the sprout crop hasn’t seemed to suffer because of it. We’ve had very little aphid or caterpillar trouble.”
He said they would be keeping an eye on the crop throughout the season to ensure any problems with disease are kept under control.
However, he said crop density in the early part of the season is looking a little light: “From September and October the yields haven’t been as a large as we had thought, although we’re hopeful that the later Christmas crop may bulk up as the sprouts are still growing.”
He said the industry, like many, does need to see an increase in price: “We’ve got good demand and sales, but we need a bit more money, there just isn’t enough margin at the moment. Price is down, but they can’t keep going down because we need to keep re-investing.
“We need to keep the job going, but it is getting harder, that’s why we’re doing promotions, we need to keep pushing to get people to eat more.”
In fact, he is confident of increasing sales yet again this year, following a rise last Christmas of 30 per cent. “I don’t think we’re going to maintain that kind of growth, but I think we should be able to boost sales this year by around five to 10 per cent.”
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