Despite widespread confidence that the current government will be better for horticulture than the previous, many growers do not even know who the DEFRA leaders are.
More than half (56 per cent) think that the coalition government will be better for farming and horticulture, while 19 per cent disagree and a quarter remain unsure.
However, less than half of the growers surveyed knew the names of either DEFRA secretary of state Caroline Spelman and minister James Paice.
A grower survey undertaken at the National Fruit Show last week showed that the majority (80 per cent) are expecting to boost profitability in the next five years but half claim that marketing organisations need to achieve higher returns for growers.
The 43-strong poll, carried out by independent consultant Laurence Gould Partnership Ltd, showed that most respondents saw a combination of increasing yields, changing varietal structure and improved fruit quality as the main ways to increase profitability, but just over half (62 per cent) calculate the breakeven price for the main varieties of fruit which they grow.
More than 80 per cent of the growers surveyed expected to continue to plant fruit, with approximately half of these looking to increase their cropping area and the remainder looking only to replant existing orchards.
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