British Summer Fruits chairman Laurence Olins has slammed a report by a hospitality company which claimed that the UK soft fruit's future was under threat.
Beacon's said that fresh produce farms - particularly those working in soft fruit - face a grim and financially unsustainable future after the new National Living Wage was introduced by the UK government in April.
Beacon, which represents about 2,000 independent businesses across the hospitality, leisure and care home markets as well as suppliers - including regional fresh produce businesses - said that as well as suppliers expecting the price of strawberries to rise this year due to the pressure of the NLW on UK farmers, some are predicting the closure of British farms as strawberries become an unprofitable operation, replaced in supermarkets by cheaper imports.
But Olins argued: 'We totally disagree with their research and their conclusions. Which growers have they spoken to? One can only assume it's ones who are distant from the market.
'Growers are capable of making efficiencies, and the soft fruit industry has a history of being able to adapt, and we've every confidence that it will adapt.'
The warning came on the back of arecent NFU report, which revealed that the impact of the NLW could cost growers 58 per cent of their profit immediately.
Speaking about the report, Paul Connelly, managing director of Beacon, said: “It seems that strawberry fields may not be forever in the British countryside. Our suppliers are warning that the landscape of soft fruit farming and fresh produce is under threat with the possibility of cheaper foreign imports replacing British produce on supermarket shelves and on restaurant menus.
'We are working with our suppliers and customers to provide context to any price rises they might have to pass through and agree with the NFU in calling for the government, and the wider supply chain, to support our fresh produce farmers through these wage changes”.
Other fresh produce items will be affected by the NLW too, Beacon said, with labour-intensive farming industries - such as lettuce, cucumber, peppers and cherry tomatoes - particularly at risk from the new pay threshold, combined with other damaging factors such as rising production costs and supermarket price wars.
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