Ongoing rainfall is threatening to curtail the asparagus season and disrupt the new potato and vining pea campaigns.
An annual asparagus festival in the Vale of Evesham scheduled for last weekend had to be cancelled due to a lack of asparagus. Cooler air temperatures and rain cooling soil temperatures has meant that asparagus crowns are not producing their spears yet.
According to the British Asparagus campaign, run on behalf of growers by Pam Lloyd PR, it could be another 10 days before peak volumes are reached and cutting will have to stop on 21 June as usual in order to give ferns enough time to recover and produce next season.
A spokeswoman for the campaign said: “The long-term forecast for May is also not good, but this does have the side benefit of spreading the asparagus supply more evenly throughout the season, which should provide more availability for the Jubilee weekend than we might normally expect for that time of year.” Harvesting is running at one day in four rather than every day.
In Lincolnshire and the eastern counties, concern is growing for the vining pea crop. Salvador Potter of the Processors and Growers Research Organisation said: “Early varieties went in quite early, but we have been on hold now for three weeks with the mid-season varieties. The consequence is at harvest time the factories will be stood still for a couple of weeks and then we will get a concertina effect.”
Meanwhile, David Nelson, field director at Branston, said its growers in the South West are feeling the effects of the rain: “Some of the early planted potatoes are waterlogged and there is a bit of erosion due to the rain.” He added that four weeks without any plantings means that there is still some 40 per cent of the potato crop to go into the ground.
“That later crop then won’t have much of the growing season left to reach its full yield potential.”
Fears that there will be an overlap of supply and a clash on the marketplace with Jersey Royals are unfounded, however, according to a spokesman for the Jersey Royal Company. “It is turning into a pretty normal season for Jersey Royals,” he said. “The start was late, but there won’t be any great splurge of product all at the same time. Now is the key time and the multiples have kicked off promotions.”
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