“Lincolnshire supplies have started already before the Cornish crop has finished and so there is an overlap,” said Philip Effingham, chairman of the Brassica Growers Association. “Lincolnshire has not suffered any losses over the winter so there is a full crop. The abundance is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. It will be a difficult time on pricing.”
Conditions over the winter have been so mild that Lincolnshire growers could have produced the brassica crop right through the winter instead of finishing in March and starting up again in November. But now the warm conditions that have brought the crop on, are affecting consumption. “When there is such a warm spell, we see a drop in consumption,” said Effingham. “What we need are some good crisp days.”
And in Cornwall, Alasdair McLennan of grower Southern England Farms has classified the season as “dreadful” with many producers ploughing their crops back into the ground as there was no market for the heads following a very strong start to the season, tight availability and strong pricing. “It won’t go down as a good marketing year,’ said McLennan.
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