Three leading figures from the bedding and pot plant industry are sharing their experiences of how current coronavirus restrictions are affecting their businesses, in a podcast now available on the AHDB website. British Protected Ornamentals Association (BPOA) chairman James Alcaraz; Mike Smith, owner of Essex nursery WD Smith & Son; and Andrew Fuller, technical director of Neame Lea Nursery in Lincolnshire are interviewed by AHDB knowledge exchange manager for ornamentals, Wayne Brough.
Mr Alcaraz says sales for Bryants Nurseries in Hertfordshire, where he is managing director, had been good right up to the point when the lockdown was announced, on March 23. “On the Monday evening I was looking out on a despatch yard full of stock – and on the Tuesday it was still there. There is just none of the volume [of sales]that we would expect at this time of year,” he says.
BPOA, as part of the NFU, is among those campaigning for government financial aid for the sector under a so-called ‘plant scrappage’ scheme. And, Mr Alcaraz told the podcast, he hopes the government would allow at least the plant sales areas on garden centres to reopen as soon as possible. “When they do [reopen], we need to make sure we have product to sell,” he says.
“Meanwhile, we need to be as flexible and fluid as possible. We are fortunate on our nursery that we sow 85% of the crop ourselves. We can hold plugs as long as possible with plant growth regulator and temperature regimes but we are being very dogmatic in deciding what we are trying to hold and what to allow to go [to waste]. We know at some point the skips will be rolling in and we need to get decaying product off the floor so we don’t start getting disease issues in the houses.”
One of Neame Lea’s supermarket customers is continuing to support its agreed programme, but others have been unable to accommodate ornamentals in supply chains that are now concentrating on food. Both WD Smith and Bryants are among nurseries offering local deliveries but Mr Smith says these are more about cutting waste while Mr Alcaraz voiced concern that such sales might also be stopped. Direct mail businesses had seen an increase in sales; however, many growers are unable to access that part of the market, says Mr Fuller.
Operating nurseries under social distancing measures had been practically possible but had increased production costs for all three growers.
The podcast can be found and listened to or downloaded at https://ahdb.org.uk/podcast