As the gas crisis continues to push energy prices upwards, some UK tomato and cucumber growers have already begun to remove crops due to high prices making it uneconomical to take them through to the end of the season.
On the 13 October Joe Shepherdson, Secretary of the Cucumber Growers Association posted pictures of a cucumber crop on social media, saying: ‘Reality hits: one example of a perfectly healthy cucumber crop being pulled out today, far to early due to the astronomically high gas prices resulting in thousands of British cucumbers going in the bin.’ In response to a comment, he added, ‘I honestly don’t think the government think about our industry, it’s too easy for them to say “we can just import” but is that not the direct opposite of what BREXIT is? Should we not be fighting to be more self-sustainable?’
The National Farmers’ Union said British farms were in an “even more precarious position” than they had been in the early days of the pandemic when close to a third of the food industry was forced to close down overnight.
“We have a very real risk now of exporting parts of our farming industry overseas and reducing the capacity of UK agriculture to feed the country,” said the NFU’s vice president, Tom Bradshaw.
Lee Stiles, secretary of the Lea Valley Growers Association told the Fresh Produce Journal, “Around 30 per cent of members have indicated that they will not be planting cucumbers in January due to the uncertainty surrounding the availability of workers and the high gas price. The majority of our edible growers will wait until late November before deciding whether to order their young plants from British or Dutch propagators, who will be in the same position regarding the energy prices. It will simply be uneconomical to produce British glasshouse grown food without an accessible workforce and whilst the energy price remains so high.”
Picture caption: This cucumber crop is being grubbed out due to high gas prices.