I’ve been saying for months, if not years, that the UK market needs to be mindful of the impact its pricing policies are having on international suppliers.

If you are a consultant to the supply chain around the world, it must be very difficult to recommend the UK as a destination of first choice at the moment. Now, as you will have read on p1, one of the larger players in the world is advising growers to think very carefully where they place their products.

Geoff Green may not purely be talking about the UK, but this market, which has made a positive virtue of its high standards and demanding specifications for so long, is now to some degree finding them a hindrance.

When product runs short, growers are within their rights to sell it to the highest bidder. The cost:return equation they are weighing up now perhaps more than ever requires them to evaluate the risk factor involved in serving a pernickity customer, with a reputation for rejecting gear that would not raise an eyebrow elsewhere in Europe.

With discounters on the rise, maybe the UK supermarkets will drop their standards. But largely due to their persistence over 20 years, availability of the right quality is no longer a major issue.

Paying a fair price will guarantee supply in the years to come, nothing more and nothing less. Growers have alternatives across the globe, and the UK unfortunately is not the most attractive among them.