Average farm business income for the horticulture sector in England, which includes glasshouse-grown crops as well as specialist fruit and ornamentals production but excludes field-scale vegetables, increased by 15% to £60,600 per holding in the 12-month period ending February 2022.
However, only a quarter of all businesses generated an income of £75,000 or more and 30% failed to make a profit.
Output fell for glasshouse flowers and nursery stock enterprises. Overall, variable costs rose by 7% and fixed costs by 6%.
‘Diversified activities’ were mainly responsible for driving the increase in income, said the annual Defra survey, which released the results in November. ‘Higher output from tourism, building rental and renewable energy more than compensated for a fall in output from food processing and retailing,’ it said.
Diversification contributed £24,400, the equivalent of 40% of overall business income.
Consultants Promar have won the contract to run the farm business survey, which up to now had been undertaken by a group of universities. More farmers and growers will be given the opportunity to participate, and will now be offered various benefits in return, including access to Promar’s financial farm management software.
Read more news and features from the protected crop industry in our monthly publication The Commercial Greenhouse Grower.
