It’s always nice to know that government is supportive of UK horticulture. That would seem to be the case judging by DEFRA secretary Caroline Spelman’s interview with FPJ last week at the NFU conference.

But in over 50 years reporting on the industry, I don’t think I have ever come across a time when any party - regardless of political colour - has not followed the same route, because I would suggest this is part of its function by giving the population and voters confidence in the future.

When it comes to the nuts and bolts, however, our fresh produce industry operates like many others on a free market.

It continues to become increasingly competitive and may have reached a point where we have an environment in which producers, distributors and even retailers are constantly concerned about finding ways to give themselves the edge to survive, let alone expand.

It is easy to simply accept this as progress, as the industry changes shape and the number of suppliers has shrunk, even if its volumes and values have continued to rise.

What is different, as the Food 2030 report points out, is there will probably be new opportunities - as well as hardships - created by climate change.

That’s all well and good, but the caveat must be that it will be a long time before arid southern Europe wants to buy peaches grown en masse in Kent, or iceberg lettuce which is equally at home being produced on what were once the ski slopes of the Grampians.

Meanwhile, the industry will be left to its own devices by government and it is a fair bet that progress will still be defined by overworked and often meaningless terms from the lexicon of marketing, such trying to establish a “level playing field”, or build a “partnership” - which means different things to different people.

Technology will probably play a greater part in speeding change by lengthening seasons through one way or another. This could be new resistant varieties or the ability to hold produce longer in store and even at retail level in peak condition, although as a result the concepts of what can be described as “seasonal” and “fresh” are likely to become even more blurred and the customer more confused.

Linked to this is also the industry’s own unique timeline, where fresh produce success - whether imported or home grown - is measured by the commercial reality such as how long it takes to breed a new apple that will stay the course, or change consumers’ habits so that they want to buy avocados or mangoes.

The reality, meanwhile, will as ever be based on the need for every sector to not just make a profit, but make enough to want to invest for the future.

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