In business, it is sometimes advisable to keep your cards close to your chest, but as the country and its climate changes around us, it seems clear that the fresh produce industry needs to work together as much as possible.
The majority of fresh produce companies have seen the advantages of proving both their regional and environmental credentials and the East Midlands is one such area that is more than well placed to benefit from this key trend.
But how is the industry ensuring its long-term sustainability for the entire supply chain? As issues like horticultural sustainability, water use and climate change mount up against the industry as a whole, an open forum to exchange and learn from one another seems more important than ever.
“Water footprint” has been a buzz phrase for some time now, but like the carbon footprint, it is a complex and confusing issue to deal with - especially alongside the everyday challenges within the horticultural industry. However, with climate change continually changing the topography throughout the world, the evaluation of land use to determine what suits it best is becoming crucial for future sustainability.
It’s what Martin Evans, chairman of the British Carrot Growers’ Association and managing director of Freshgro, calls “moulding horticulture for the future” - it’s something he believes the fresh produce industry in the East Midlands should focus on to remain commercially viable.
“The climate is critical for all fruit and vegetables, but carrots are available 52 weeks of the year and must be operational at all times,” he says. “We have had a decade of two odds, with very hot summers and then very dull summers, but when we have to irrigate it’s expensive and the costs are creeping up.”
It has been suggested by some that eventually, a reassessment of land use for various crops will be advisable. This can be seen in areas like Cornwall, where crops like cauliflower are becoming increasingly hard to grow because of the weather and its effect on the soil. Carrots are relatively new to the Nottinghamshire area and have thrived in the last 20 years, with irrigation at a minimum.
“If you look at Derbyshire and Lincolnshire, brassicas do not have a natural home there,” continues Evans. “But it’s a low value, fresh crop with a heavy haulage. At some stage, you have to take a look and wonder if it is sustainable to keep on growing those crops on that land. Historically, all the niche products were grown in the Tay Valley, but it has outpriced itself. Lincolnshire will outprice itself and everything will evolve.”
Lincolnshire is one of the largest production areas for the brassica industry so land use and horticultural foresight is crucial to determine sustainable returns.
“Three years ago, the outlook for cauliflowers was fine in Cornwall, the Isle of Wight, Pembrokeshire and Lincolnshire,” says supplier and importer Davis (Produce) Ltd’s Peter Davis, who believes that food security is about to see a turn for the worse in the UK.
“The problem is that the crop is now being killed off by the frost and the investment in production, labour, diesel and packaging means that the industry is losing a fortune. The supermarkets are not interested in general in the day-to-day expenses; they just want food on the shelves. We’ve seen AV Produce in the south go out of business because the company couldn’t compete in the long term. We cannot continue importing huge quantities at such a high cost. It isn’t sustainable.
“Winds are shifting and changing,” he continues. “Ten years ago, the Ukraine was the place to grow arable but now 15 per cent of that has been lost and the country is not getting rain and therefore not able to continue supplying the market. The China effect is going to have a huge impact on the fresh produce industry and we are not going to have our pick of markets to get our food from. We are still thinking like it is 10 years ago and we have to stop it. We are not the most important market and we have to remember we are part of a global market.”
It is a popular line of thinking within the industry to blame the supermarkets’ iron fist for a lean industry that’s coming to the end of sustaining its own hyper efficiency. But QV Foods’ Simon Martin, who will be giving a presentation on fresh produce at the East Midlands conference in Lincoln on 17 March, says that the industry has to help itself. “Some products are clearly wasting money and it makes me wonder why,” he says. “A good example at the moment is cauliflower. It is an excellent product and I love the stuff, but it’s just not as popular as it used to be. Growers say they don’t want to cut their programme back and let customers down, but if they reduced the acreage they’d create demand for a niche product.
“I’m not convinced that the brassica industry knows what consumers want and you can’t blame the retailers. What would we do if we were being offered an abundance of product off and on? They put it on promotion to get it through the system.”
Davis believes that the government could help more and is concerned about recent cutbacks made by North Lincolnshire Council regarding a land drainage programme. He says: “We need lobbying from the industry, a change in public perception of growers and we need supermarkets to value UK growers.”
HEART OF HORTICULTURE PROJECT OFF TO A FLYING START AFTER WEST MIDLANDS EVENT
In response to FPJ’s last event, FPJ Conferences - West Midlands, the Heart of Horticulture project was born following discussion between the debate panel that featured NFU’s Sarah Pettitt, Wychavon Council’s Chris Brooks, Elsoms’ John Constable and Cobrey Farms’ John Chinn. The project was then subsequently launched at the NFU’s annual conference last month by Pettitt, who is engaging with producers and processors throughout the region.
The first of a series of focus groups was held in Pershore in the last week of February and producers shared their views and experiences on the challenges they face and how they think the industry can become more sustainable.
EFFP consultant Liz Bowles, who also gave a presentation at the FPJ Conferences - West Midlands event, has been busy interviewing all businesses in the country who consolidate produce from the West Midlands to establish a more accurate picture of what is produced, where it comes from and where it is marketed.
Next week, with help from the Horticultural Development Company and the Potato Council, all growers in the region will be asked to fill in either a postal or online questionnaire. Hereford soft-fruit producer Anthony Snell is chairman of the project and was also part of the West Midlands conference lineup. He says: “I appreciate it is a very busy time of year and I know only too well that growers are bombarded by surveys these days. However, I do hope everyone will take time to fill it in as I am confident the payback for our sector will be well worth the effort.”
PROJECT AIMS
• Provide evidence to support planning applications that are often thwarted because local authorities don’t appreciate the importance of horticulture.
• Make sure that horticulture is not forgotten by Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), which will have funds and responsibility to promote industry in the region.
• Give all horticultural businesses in the West Midlands a wide range of facts and figures that will be useful to them when applying for Rural Development Programme for England funding.
• Highlight what can be done to improve the profitability of the sector and encourage supply chains to work together more effectively.
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