Small-to-medium growers of new potatoes have been wiped off the map thanks to post-Brexit labour laws and climate change-induced bad weather.
According to the founder of one of the country’s biggest vegetable box schemes, it has been impossible to source British early potatoes for distribution to customers.
Guy Singh-Watson said it was part of a wider “tragedy” of smaller UK fruit and vegetable growers quitting in the face of low returns, post-Brexit labour shortages and extreme weather.
A survey by his company, Riverford, found that 49 per cent of horticulture companies fear imminently going out of business, with a report noting:
“Indeed, they are going out of business. Around the south and southwest, there were lots of small family farms, who grew 10 to 100 acres of potatoes. They just all got fed up with the returns and the work and they have given up. The last one who grew down on the ‘Golden Mile’ down near Penzance gave up last year and we haven’t been able to find [any],” said Singh-Watson.
Gerard Croft at the British Potato Trade Association said it isn’t just the small-to-medium potato farmers who are suffering. Even bigger players had few new potatoes this year because the ground was so waterlogged in spring after months of rain.
April was the UK’s sixth wettest April on record, after a warm and wet winter, according to the Met Office.
“The southwest has been the worst hit, it’s had a torrid time. A lot of the crop went in very late. Supplies have been very, very hand to mouth: supply is tight,” said Mark Taylor from the industry group GB Potatoes.
“We are seeing more extreme weather situations and that is putting a lot of growers under pressure,” he added.
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