Jersey Produce Marketing Organisation (JPMO) is to cease trading as tomato exports from the island grind to a halt.
JPMO director William Church made the sad announcement this week that after 72 years of exports of salad produce to the UK, the organisation will cease to exist, when the season ends in a few weeks time. The demise will also bring with it more than 100 redundancies.
Church said: “Two rubbish summers have not helped demand for Jersey tomatoes and while supermarket prices have remained static, our costs have gone up. Everyone talks about fuel but it is not just that: fertiliser costs have increased by 150 per cent and the cost of labour and electricity have also gone up. It has got to the stage where no one is making any money so we have said ‘stop’. It is a sad time.”
Apart from one grower with a small amount of glass who hopes to export next season using recycled oil, those growers who choose to continue production will supply the small domestic market only.
No comments yet