The Thanet Earth glasshouse project is a further sign that the best growers are willing to do whatever it takes to stay at the forefront of production innovation.

The sheer size and scale of this project - promising to give a 15 percent boost to home production of several salad crops - will be a major boost in view of the bigger picture of getting more UK produce onto the shelves of our retailers.

Pertinently, it also promises to help improve growers’ understanding of the market place, offering to ‘extend the grower’s role further up the supply chain’. That should lead to more stability and better returns for the growers.

• By the time you read this, Lord Rooker will have announced the business strategy for the new levy board structure. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, Defra refused to let us have an embargoed press release, so we were unable to include details in this week’s issue before we went to press.

However, if you head over to our website at www.freshinfo.com/cg now, you will find full details of what is likely to be a highly significant announcement for the future of the industry, and there will of course be full coverage and reaction within next week’s Commercial Grower.