Talk of higher prices required if growers are to survive at the start of every English apple season have sadly become a reality for the top fruit, blackcurrant and hop farm.

'We have had to stop farming, after all this time,' said Sarah Calcutt, a sixth generation grower. 'If you need get a return of 30.5p a lb for a dessert apple to break even, and you only get 29.4p a lb, then that doesn't add up well... In six years I have watched imports increase, the prices of fruit fall even further, breweries ceasing to issue contracts and the cost of wages and transport spiral ever upward.' Heavily involved in the NFU and its headquarters panels as well as European and international groups, Calcutt and her family have always had a modern, outward-looking approach. 'No one could ever accuse us of being the kind of farmers who were stuck at home with our heads in the sand, ignorant of what was going on in the industry,' she said. 'We even started up our own marketing group for the blackcurrants to gain greater control of costs and a greater understanding of our marketplace.' Now Calcutt is driven by market forces to leave her father to grow hops on another farm and market blackcurrants for other members of the group through Kentish Blackcurrant Growers. Meanwhile she has set up Calcutt Farm Support as a consultancy to interpret legislation and help growers cut through red tape and Sarah's Useful People to provide professional and domestic assistance to the new Kent population of commuters.

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