Announcing another exceptional year for KG, he tempered the positive news by adding: 'We are reporting good results and most things tell us that this success will continue. However, if these proposals are carried through, the opinions of a group of independents on the AWB could blow away all the efforts made by this industry.

'Soft fruit is one of the success stories of British agriculture – and now the good old Brits are trying to skewer even that,' he said.

Labour costs, he added, represent 60 per cent of KG's total expenditure – this percentage has risen rapidly thanks to double-digit wage increases in each of the last five years, against an annual national wage inflation of 3.3 per cent. 'We cannot afford to let this happen, we will all be out of a job if these people succeed,' said Davison.

Speaking at the Soft Fruit Seminar on Tuesday, AMS's Tim Morton said although soft fruit was in great demand, the costs of investing in new techniques and the rapid rise in wages was driving growers into the ground.

He added: 'Wages have gone up 27 per cent in 18 months. No industry can survive that without an equally large increase in productivity, so an action plan is needed. We cannot survive in the current political climate with an imposed rise in wages.

'I suggest the industry has to have a summit to decide how to meet the arena we find ourselves in.

'I am concerned about the industry, purely because of apathy we may just absorb a 27 per cent rise in wages and let it slip by. It is not an option to do nothing.' AFI Direct Sales' Graham Blake calculated the last 10 years have seen a 79 per cent hike in wage levels. 'I hope that the people in our industry who are officially discussing these issues are successful – it should be left to them,' he said.

'There are so many positive things happening within this sector, but no industry could take this.' Nicholas Marston, KG's md, added: 'The current position is that as an industry we have given a vote of no confidence to the chairman and independents on the AWB.

'It is a ludicrous proposition, if any other industry was to have a 27 per cent wage increase forced on it, it would go bankrupt, why is soft fruit different?' Morton suggested looking to other sectors for inspiration, and possibly utilising robotic harvesters to cut down on money being spent on human labour.

He also proposed considering moving production overseas.

Some 81 per cent of KG's fruit is supplied to multiples and Davison said that, while supportive, its customer base 'should be more alive to the risk to the business – they are becoming so.'

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