Cauliflower production in the UK is running a month ahead of schedule and is unlikely to right itself soon, one industry analyst has said.
Phillip Effingham of GreenTech Consultancy said: “It has been a miserable winter for growers with sales depressed because of the milder weather. Production has come well forward especially Kent and Cornwall. The season is running some four to five weeks ahead and I can’t see it righting for at least another couple of weeks.”
With mild weather, several weeks’ supply has been coming on stream at once and although Lincolnshire would not usually start its season until March, Effingham calculates that growers in the county will be cutting their first cauliflower well before the end of February.
Congestion on the market could have been worse, however. Effingham said: “You have to remember it costs £1,000 an acre to grow cauliflower. Growers got their fingers burned last season with the really harsh winter and many of them lost a lot of their crop so have cut back on planting this time.”
Producers and the rest of the supply chain really need to turn their attention to building sales, Effingham believes. “You could say growers should not produce as much, but if this had been a really cold year demand would have been stronger and there probably wouldn’t have been enough product. As a sector, we have to find a way of controlling the crop; storing it better or for longer, or alternative markets in processing; freezing or drying.”
