British vegetable supplies have been 'severely disrupted' this season as growers continue to face a 'mountain of challenges' including inflation and extreme weather events.
Despite a favourable start to the 2022 season, the British Growers Association has warned that farmers were struggling to produce the nation’s supply of vegetables.
The grower-run umbrella group called for an 'urgent reset' in the returns for growers, as this was now vital to ensure continuity of supply in the future.
An internal report commissioned by the British Growers Association looked at the true costs of production for broccoli and carrots.
It highlighted that recent inflationary cost increases have raised production costs to unprecedented levels.
In April the average rate of inflation for agricultural inputs hit 28% driven by massive increases in fuel, energy, labour and fertiliser – all essential elements of vegetable production.
And in recent weeks, the challenges facing growers have been compounded by the effects of drought and record temperatures, the report said, with many key growing areas recording minimal rainfall since the start of June.
British Growers warned that the lack of rain was not only affecting crops planted in the spring, but crops which were being planted now for harvest during the winter.
Brassica growers have already been reporting plans to cut back production by as much as 20%, and this coupled with the anticipated losses due to the ongoing drought could leave UK veg supplies in a deficit situation into the autumn and winter.
Moreover, possible restrictions on water usage could make an already difficult situation even worse, the association warned.
Jack Ward, CEO of British Growers, said vegetable growers across the country were facing a difficult situation.
"The report showed that growers need a significant increase for their products to cover the inflationary effects on input costs and the financial impacts of the drought.
"In many instances, the retail price of vegetables is lower than it was 5 years ago despite five years of cost increases," he said.
"In the last 12 months we have seen cost increases at retail of over 20% in other sectors (such as dairy and butter) yet the inflation in chilled veg is at 6.3%.
"[This] means that growers and retailers are between them absorbing some of the extra production costs in an already fragile sector, a situation that cannot continue."
Mr Ward said this lack of return was draining confidence out of the industry at a time when the UK needed to be investing in vegetable production.
Unless growers can see a way of securing viable returns, he said they would turn to lower risk options such as growing other less risky crops like wheat, sugar beet, energy crops or even converting more land to solar farms, which was already starting to happen.
He said: "We urgently need a reset in the way UK vegetable growers are rewarded to ensure the risks from weather and the inflationary costs are more equitably shared across the supply chain."
Production challenges are becoming increasingly common due to the weather volatility. In recent years, vegetable production has had to contend with drought, record rainfall, record amounts of frost and this year temperatures.
And the situation is not confined to the UK, as other parts of Europe which have traditionally supplied the UK when domestic production was short are experiencing similar issues with costs increases and record temperatures.
Because of this, Mr Ward said all parts of the supply chain needed to work together to create a sustainable supply chain.
"We face global food security challenges and therefore need a properly funded UK vegetable sector in order to meet the growing demand for this critical element of our national diet."
