Tough conditions on carrots

Carrot growers may be forgiven for thinking fate is conspiring against them this year.

Heavy rain throughout June, July and August meant summer was a wash-out and the effects are now only just becoming apparent.

Ian Morrison, field operations manager with Kettle Produce, said: “We’ve had a terrible summer, and going along with all that rain have been extremely low light levels, so the crop has struggled to get any good growth.”

The upshot of the poor growing season means that carrots are generally going to be shorter in size this year.

“The roots are shorter in length,” said Morrison. “They are going to be within specification, and they’ll be above the minimum size, but not by a great deal.”

The reduction in carrot size also means overall tonnages are likely to be down, with average yield anticipated to fall by, depending on the area, between 10 to 25 per cent on last year.

“Last year was a bumper season,” Morrison points out. “But we’re still down when compared with a normal year.”

Martin Evans, chief executive of Fresh Growers and chairman-elect of the British Carrot Growers’ Association, said the problems with the crop have only really become apparent recently. “We weren’t able to tell the size issue until the crop matured and we could see the effects.”

But of course, one of the more serious problems for the industry, is how the stored product will keep. Morrison said: “Although September was quite good, October has been very wet and the soil is saturated. Most of the diseases that affect carrots thrive in wet conditions and we’re storing product down in extremely wet conditions.”

He said it is too early to tell yet quite how affected the crop will be, as there are no signs of any problems, but with some of the crop staying in the ground for another seven months, there are not many in the industry feeling too optimistic. “The crop appears to have handled the situation robustly, but I’m not sure I believe the health reports,” said Evans. “If we look at other products affected by the weather, shelf life has been down. We’re storing now for lifting in May, and I’m not sure I believe the health reports, they’re looking better than they should be.”

Morrison echoes his views: “The crop is going to be in the ground for seven months and that’s a worry. As each month goes past, there’s a greater chance of some disease developing.

“We need a good dry winter and that would be a help, but we fear some of the damage will have been done already.”

Evans said it is going to be vital for the industry to keep a close monitor of its crops throughout the winter months, and he fears the weather has not finished with them yet.

“It’s also quite possible we’re in for a cold winter this year, but because of the poor summer weather, the quality of the straw that we’re using to insulate the crop is poor.

“Some growers are switching over to plastic, but the cost of plastic is up 40 per cent because of the rise in cost of oil. It seems that fate is against us.”

And it is not just the cost of plastic which has been affected by the increasing cost of crude oil; agricultural fuel is up by 71 per cent, fertiliser up 35 per cent and steelwork a further 20 per cent. On top of all this, labour is also up seven per cent.

The increasing costs are, of course, leading to producers to question the viability of carrot production.

David Martin, of Plantsystems, said: “Many growers are reviewing their production of all vegetable crops as it is becoming too expensive and much too risky.

“Growers have been struggling along at the point of survival, and now with the weather, combined with costs being so high, some are not feeling confident of producing again.”

Evans said the situation is proving difficult. “Carrots are expensive to produce, and people might start to question the balance of crops in their business.”

He said they need to get the rise in costs across to their customers: “Otherwise we’re going to struggle from a production point of view. If we can’t keep the margins onboard, we’ll see an area reduction.”

To add to the misery, at the same time as rising costs, most of the industry has seen a fall in prices as well, reports Morrison: “On average the overall price is down by around £10 a tonne, and that’s putting pressure on primary producers. It’s pretty difficult at the moment.”

Up until now the industry has managed to maintain almost 100 per cent UK produce on the supermarket shelves, but if the situation remains the same, Evans fears that may slip.

“We’ve invested considerably in the industry to maintain that 100 per cent position, we don’t want to lose that. We’re not looking for massive increases, just inflationary movements.”