British farmers grew 2.7million tonnes of vegetables last year, but couldn’t offset an overall decline in supply after a drop in EU imports.
Volumes of home-grown veg increased by 4.9 per cent from 2016, with the value of British vegetables rising 3.3 per cent to £1.5billion, according to government data published today.
Home-grown fruit however experienced a drop in volumes, falling by 5.1 per cent, with apples in particular suffering from late frosts which damaged Bramley and Cox orchards. Home produced fruit now makes up just 16 per cent of the total UK fruit supply, falling one per cent on the previous year.
While vegetable growers can be encouraged by the data, the stats won’t do much to distract the industry from the elephant in the room. Brexit.
The uncertainty facing growers since the vote has left businesses unable to plan, with an alarming drop in seasonal workers - for several reasons, not limited to Brexit - the primary concern.
Commenting on the decline in fruit production, NFU horticulture and potatoes board chair, Ali Capper, said: “Some of it will be down to the apples and there were frosts in certain varieties, it’s always very seasonal.
“Some of it might be down to growers just starting to scale back investment. Fruit growing has higher risk and higher costs, so it’s a combination of reasons. There are growers who are already moving production to the EU and worldwide because of Brexit uncertainty.”
Chief executive of the British Growers Association, Jack Ward, said the numbers can’t mask the underlying threats to British horticulture, despite an “encouraging” year.
“You can’t read too much into the numbers. It’s encouraging to see that volumes and value are up. Last year was a good year with things like peas due to the weather. But the value needs to go up just to keep pace with the increasing costs of production.
“It doesn’t mean growers are getting all of that value increase into their pockets. Competition between retailers continues to intensify and that’s putting enormous pressure on margins. The Sainsbury’s and Asda merger is likely to further intensify that competition.”
UK veg made up 57 per cent of British supply in 2017, compared to 54 per cent in 2016. Yet shoppers faced a small decrease in availability as overall supply dipped 0.6 per cent due to a hefty 7.6 per cent fall in imports.
Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, German and France were the major EU exporters to the UK, making up a total of 72 per cent of foreign imports, measure by value.
Total fruit supply however improved by 1.6 per cent to 4.6 million tonnes, with imports helping offset the fall in home production.
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