Snow struck parts of Kent early last week causing protective structures over some soft-fruit crops to collapse and damaging the plants beneath them.
The local office of the National Farmers Union in south-east England has called for understanding from the trade. “The weight of snow bent some of the tunnel structures bringing added costs to those growers affected,” said a spokeswoman. “The problem is localised, but it has struck at the heart of English soft-fruit production in the Maidstone area. It would be helpful if the retailers could be aware of this and consider it in terms of their pricing this season.”
Grower Robert Pascall reported collapsed Spanish tunnels at his west Kent farm. “We were able to partially salvage some raspberry and strawberry plants, but we will have to purchase new tunnels and rebuild. I would say there are about four or five growers producing on quite a few hectares who are affected to varying degrees, but it shouldn’t have a major impact on supply overall.”
He reported that crops were running about two weeks behind schedule due to the cold start to the spring, but depending on weather, plants could catch up before the start of the season.
The delay to blossom on stone and top fruit trees is similar so last week’s snowfall came too early to cause any damage. “Our worry is that there is still a change of frost in May which would have a bad impact,” warned Worldwide Fruit’s Steve Maxwell. He estimated that apple blossom is running about 16 days behind last season and stone-fruit up to two weeks. “We have certainly had less sunlight and colder temperatures this year than last,” he said.
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