As the holiday season approaches, the UK’s Vegetable growers are working hard to ensure that they key Christmas vegetables are available. Growers know what to expect as we approach the Christmas rush and have spent months planning to make sure there is a good supply of traditional seasonal veg, which is such an important part of Christmas writes Coral Clark, from the British Growers Association in this note:

“But, despite the festive spirit, UK growers are facing increasing challenges from the unprecedented British weather. The UK has faced extra-ordinary levels of rainfall during the autumn of 2023. Storms Agnes, Babet and Ciaran have implications for the production and the security of supply into spring 2024.

Lincolnshire, a major area of vegetable production, saw a staggering 150 mm in October alone - 312% above the long-term average. And continued rainfall into December is filling already flooded fields resulting in difficulties in harvesting. While Christmas supplies will be tight, especially cauliflower where the continuous heavy rain over the last two months has affected crops, vegetable growers are anxious about the crops which fill the gap until new season crops start in late spring 2024. Crops can only withstand so much adverse weather and growers are wondering how well supplies will last through the late winter and early spring.

The excessive rainfall in the back end of 2023 could also lead to a delayed start to the 2024 cropping season where areas of the UK would normally expect to start planning in January / early February. Any delay to the 2024 planting season coupled with a sooner than expected end to the 2023 winter season could result in supply problems later in the New Year.

As Tim O’Malley, Nationwide Produce, writing about the situation facing growers recently said that despite the plethora of challenges facing UK growers - diminishing labour supply, Brexit and inflation - it is actually the major weather events we face on an annual basis which are causing the most disruption to growers.

The increasingly volatile weather conditions coupled with low returns are leading to an evermore challenging situation for growers. Commenting on the current situation Jack Ward, British Growers Association said nowhere in the world is immune from the weather and growers around the world are facing difficult conditions. Generally, the UK is ideally suited to growing the veg crops which make up the majority of our weekly shopping baskets and we rely heavily on UK growers to ensure we have access to a wide selection of high-quality fresh veg.”

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com