The recent heatwave could be “the final straw” for some of the UK’s pea growers, as fast-maturing crops cause factories to be overloaded, the pea growers’ association has warned.
High temperatures over the last few weeks have caused crops to mature faster than planned, leaving factories struggling to cope and causing some growers to leave as much as 20 per cent of crops in fields to be harvested dry for animal feed.
UK growers are fairing better than continental producers where the weather is extreme, the PVGA conceded, but grower representatives are concerned about the future of the industry in the UK. “Margins are too tight, after years of bludgeoning by supermarkets, to withstand a bad year like this,” said PVGA chief executive Martin Riggall. “This is a high-risk crop that requires an enormous investment in specialist machinery. Coping with the weather is part of farming, but with profitability of the pea crop only very marginal even in a good year, growers will need to see significant increases in contract prices for 2007 to be persuaded to stick with the crop - and for some it may already be too late. Grain and oilseed commodity prices are increasing, and growers will be making their cropping decisions in the next four to six weeks”.
“The freezing companies have suffered with prices forced down by heavy-handed supermarket buying tactics,” said Riggall. “Some of the major players have been reporting serious losses for two or three years, and we worry how long they can continue.”
The UK, usually boasting a perfect pea-producing climate, is the biggest producer of frozen peas in Europe, second only to USA in the world, and has a world-wide reputation for top quality peas, according to the association. “Most of the UK industry is geared to freezing the peas within just two and a half hours of picking,” explained Riggall. “This adds some cost to the job, but results in the sweet, young, tender peas that British consumers know and love.”
