Almost a third of the fresh produce industry is performing strongly despite the recession.

In its latest study into the financial state of the UK fresh produce industry, Plimsoll Publishing has, despite the recession, awarded 321 of the UK’s top 1,000 fresh produce companies a strong financial rating for their outstanding financial performance.

The publisher rated each firm into one of five categories based on its overall financial performance: strong, good, mediocre, caution and danger. As well as the 32 per cent putting in an excellent performance in the strong category, a further 184 companies - or 18 per cent of the total - were rated as holding a respectable position.

Plimsoll analyst David Pattison said: “We are riddled with bad news stories and so it can be hard to get a positive view, but what we are seeing here gives cause for optimism. It shows that a lot of businesses have been able to cut costs and rationalise. This is being done through very active management and basically working hard.”

The fresh produce trade is outperforming many other business sectors. However, Pattison did not denigrate the impact that the recession has had on the industry. He said: “The downturn has had an impact on every business sector and while fresh produce has not been hit as dramatically as others, certain sectors that are allied have been particularly badly affected, such as hotels, pubs and restaurants.”

Pattison warned that investment, even by the firms that are rated as performing strongly, is likely to be down as the full impact on the fresh produce sector may yet to be seen. He said: “We may not have seen the full impact yet, that may be to come in the medium term. In the short term, companies have been trying to make as much profit as possible to protect their businesses, but in the next six months we may start to see the impact of expenditure and investment both being down.”

Looking further down the table of financial ratings, some 213 of the 1,000 firms were rated as needing improvement, while 154 were in a weakened financial position and 128 were deemed to have questionable survival chances.