A wet summer and cold winter have severely affected the growth and yield of UK leek crops across the country this season.
The yield levels of leek crops are down on last year’s season due to late planting, freezing conditions and limited growth over the winter period.
Keith Shropshire, production manager at Woodhall Growers, in Shropshire, told freshinfo: “A rainy summer led to some late planting and then winter conditions below -10°C led to increased plough-in and resulted in limiting supply to customer orders for a couple of weeks.”
Woodhall Growers, which supplies Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Waitrose with organic leeks, believes demand has been comparable to the 2007-08 season.
The leek season kicked off in November and will end around April. If indications prove accurate, the UK could experience a shortage towards the end of spring.
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