Sitting in one of the splendidly upholstered dining rooms of the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks last week, which also has a panoramic view of what goes on outside the Old Bailey, it was good to hear top financial advisors hold up horticulture as an example to the rest of agriculture.

All too often over the years it has occupied the role of Cinderella, when considered alongside the other inhabitants of Old MacDonald’s farmyard.

Now farmers, it seems are impressed with horticulture’s subsidy-free performance and relative profitability.

Having a pat on the back is fine, but if the bankers are right, what will be the effect from the single farm payment scheme when it arrives within the next two years - although the payment dates are a still something of a mystery.

Does this mean there is a production boom in the offing? No doubt expansion of top fruit could be welcome, although perhaps not as much by the berry fruit industry.

In the past there have been, if my memory serves me right, examples of increased cropping which caused prices to sink because the market’s delicate balance of supply and demand became at least temporarily dislocated.

In my experience, farmers, as distinct from growers, tend to think big. When the West Country dairy industry was contracting, for instance, cereal farmers turned their attention to iceberg lettuce. More recently small organic producers have felt the effect of large-scale farm techniques.

Whether the effect would be the same today is harder to judge. The major supermarkets are more closely linked financially - and one hopes morally - to their category suppliers.

It would seem that horticulture’s main defence will be that through its skills and management it must remain better informed and more closely integrated with its markets and even consumers themselves on a day-to-day basis.

With more fruit and vegetables also forecast to pour in from the enlarged EU, plus competitive marketing from already existing sources, life will certainly not get any easier.

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