Nigel Jenney, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium has warned that the gas price crisis could lead some greenhouse growers to revise their cropping plans.
Speaking on the BBC’s Farming Today program he said, “In terms of the next season you’re nurturing young growing plants in the coldest part of this season, where there is no income for the growers, because they have no crop to sell at that time. And I think growers currently are reflecting on whether that is going to be a commercially sensible decision to actually commit to growing those crops, or sadly, not.”
He added that due to record gas prices, it would cost much more to produce crops and that these costs may not be absorbed by customers. “It’s going to cost much more. And will the industry’s customers be willing to offer, let’s say, different cost prices and ultimately where we, as consumers, choose to support growers and pay those substantial increases in those costs as well, because it simply cannot be absorbed by the supply chain,” he warned. “The magnitude of change of cost is so high. We’re talking about, for larger glasshouse complexes using gas, tens of thousands of pounds a day.”
A week earlier the British Cucumber Growers Association published an open letter warning or record and unsustainable cost pressures faced by its members and requesting that members of the British Retail Consortium to worked with cucumber growers, “To support them in this moment of genuine food crisis in the industry. This is an emergency which threatens the future of UK food production businesses, jobs, supply, and availability.”