It’s still raining, and the tractors of protesting farmers have now reached the Houses of Parliament, so little change from last month! ‘Save British Farming’ and ‘Fairness for Farmers of Kent’ are right to highlight that cheap food imports and unsupportive policies are putting the UK’s food security at risk. A new report from the Institute of Grocery Distribution outlines long-term risks to a resilient UK food system. Despite warm words from the Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Mark Spencer MP, there is little sign of any real understanding of the situation that so many in farming face. Retiring President of the East Kent Fruit Society, Henry Bryant, speaking at the recent awards dinner, admitted he could have given the same ‘doom and gloom’ speech as last year. “As we all know, government is only interested in ‘weeds, walkers, wildlife, and cheap food’ and only empty supermarkets shelves grab their attention”. However, as Henry observed, the well-attended annual dinner demonstrated the vibrance of the industry. He went on to say; “Orchards are being replanted, soft-fruit farms are being taken over when owners retire, there are more cherries, and plums are seeing a revival – not to mention vines! The confidence shown by both large growers with huge investments in new ideas and varieties is also seen amongst smaller growers filling niches”.
A major winner of prizes in the 2023 EKFS Orchard Competitions was ACH Farming, with Tom Hulme and fruit farm manager Paul Hamlyn collecting a lot of silverware. To understand the success of this business, the excellent profile of the farm and interview with Tom Hulme in this month’s issue continues the theme of optimism for the future. A good example from Tom is that developing relationships with customers is key, including their primary customer Lidl, with whom they have a five-year supply agreement, which has given the business confidence to invest. Interestingly, Tom will be planting 30ha of vines this year to add to the farm’s portfolio.
This year’s NIAB Tree Fruit Day webinar attracted over 100 people, but if you missed it there’s a summary of the results presented by an array of researchers on projects which fortunately are still attracting funding. There were some new projects, updates on rootstock breeding programmes, and reports from ongoing research on controlling pests and diseases, including new pests that are causing concern.
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