Change and challenges – Vegetable Yearbook & Buyers Guide 2023

Supply chain margins are ultra-thin hampering growers’ capabilities for dealing with inflationary costs. As Andrew Faichney commented, growers have lost the gains made by raising productivity because of static prices.

Cathal & Rory Lenehan of JCR Lenehanin lreland, commented that their cabbages have gone from a retail price of €1.39 down to 99c on the shelf, reflecting their returns.

The Irish Farmers Association identified that “retailers failed to offer realistic prices”. The Grocery Code Adjudicator (GCA) assessed that 25% of supermarket suppliers have been refused a cost-price increase or experienced an unreasonable delay from retailers in agreeing or implementing such requests. Some 80% of suppliers had asked for at least one increase in the previous 12 months. The scale of rising growers’ costs is identified as the cause for requesting improved returns. The GCA said delisting often follows unsuccessful cost price negotiations and other damaging issues are emerging such as delays in payments, invoice discrepancies, and forecasting errors. During the COVID-19 pandemic both sides, suppliers and supermarket purchasers, worked together. Now, failed appreciation of growers’ difficulties is straining these relationships.

Henry Dimbleby’s Report, A National Food Strategy for England 2020, identified the importance of fruit and vegetables in the national diets as longer-term protection from coronary disease, strokes, diabetes and cancers. Dimbleby lays heavy emphasis on ‘home production’ which Lady Eliza Manningham-Buller, past Director of MI5, indicated must be part of the national security strategy. Even the Department of Health and Social Care now recognises the value of eating vegetables in comparison with prescribing expensive pharmaceutical pills. Past reliance on importing foodstuffs, a mantra beloved of The HM Treasury, is no longer a tenable strategy. Supplies are diminishing and supplier nations will preferentially first feed their own people. The Whitepaper promoting Dimbleby’s Report was launched by then PM Boris Johnson in June. PM Rishi Sunak could make a huge contribution towards national health and cut NHS costs, by stimulating home vegetable production for minimal outlays.

Jack Ward the CEO of British Growers Ltd observed “there has been a strongly held view that the industry has not been that well-served by the Agriculture Horticulture Development Board (AHDB)”. A ballot resulted in 61% voting against the levy continuing, 39% wanted a continuation, with a turnout of 69.5%. Ali Capper voiced unease at the potential loss of R&D capabilities which deliver much needed business support. Potentially, the first casualty was the ‘Extension of Authorisation for Minor Uses (EAMU)’ which, over decades, gave access to vital crop protection products ‘off-label’.

Swift emergence of a privatised service, ‘Horticulture Crop Protection’, can replace the AHDB system. This offers a lifeline in the face of increasing weed, pest and disease pressures. Brassica growers have been particular beneficiaries of EAMU approvals because of the multiplicity of crop types, husbandry systems and seasonal variations. Warning services for pest and pathogen invasions are still likely losses, although ‘Brassica Alert’ may survive funded by a crop protection company. Sources of funding for R&D services providing new research and technology are unclear. Current deficits in longer-term R&D capabilities mean for example, that the vegetable nutritional studies of Professor Duncan Greenwood and Dr Clive Rhan in the period 1980-2000, could not now happen. That work was the subsequent knowledge base for RB209, the Fertiliser Manual. Understanding the biological mechanisms of pests and diseases is underpinning knowledge for both EAMUs and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies.

The fresh produce industry is speedily utilising robotics and automation. But sources of sufficient manual labour are still essential, because unharvested crops waste growers’ resources and reduce companies’ environmental sustainability. Hopefully John Shropshire’s (G’s Growers Ltd) report will encourage political realism.

More positively provisions of the Agriculture Act should offer support for promoting soil health, increasing biodiversity and minimising wasteful erosion.

Higher temperatures and longer growing seasons with fewer frosts are increasing the yields of root crops and leafy vegetables. Adversely, extended droughts increase irrigation consumption and growers’ requirements for more water storage facilities. Warmer and wetter winters are increasing pest and disease incidence and new threats are emerging as conditions become suitable for organisms moving from hotter countries. These consequences are highlighted in the following individual crop summaries.

Good yields were achieved in 2021 with stored crops carrying over into 2022. As a result, uncovering of strawed-down and December drilled plastic protected field crops was pushed back in spring 2022 reported Colin Noble (Willow Bank Farm, Diss, Norfolk). Hot conditions in summer months meant crops were irrigated every 7 days. Both, plastic protected and open ground crops struggled badly and bulking-up failed. Crops lost 4-6 weeks growth during the summer and the heat encouraged early aphid invasion which brought added virus problems.

The summer drought and very high temperatures for a prolonged period resulted in the soil surface temperatures reaching 53℃. As a result, germination and growth of carrots and parsnips were impaired causing much reduced yields.

Autumnal weather favoured crop growth and bulking, consequently strawing down, which usually starts in October, was delayed. But root shape quality was badly reduced because of earlier hot conditions. Weather in November and December was very wet followed by frosts. As a result, crops which had not been strawed-down for the 2022 winter suffered cold and frost damage especially into the crown tops causing root cracking. Processors and packers rejected some consignments. Strawing down was reasonably successful in the south and Scotland but Lancashire growers struggled. Straw is expensive but felt to be a good insurance policy against loss of root quality. Estimates suggest that carrot supplies will be short in early May before the Spanish imports arrive. Overall, 2022 yields were poor because of drought and frost and damping-off diseases reduced some crop stands by 40-60%.

Early parsnip crops followed similar trends as carrots, resulting in poor bulking. The very hot weather and intense sunlight scorched emerging leaf canopies, resulting in a lot of small roots being sent to the packers. The subsequent wet conditions encouraged diseases made worse by stresses resulting from hot weather and intense sunshine.

Soil borne disease caused by a Fusarium fungus was a major threat to onion crops in 2022 reported Tom Will of Vegetable Consultancy Services (UK) Ltd. This disease is encouraged by high temperatures and significantly damages yields. Basically, yields in 2022 were high, estimated at 108 t/ha compared with budgeted 50 t/ha. But Fusarium induced damage in 2022 was the worst ever seen with an average loss across all crops of 10% increasing to 30-40% in some fields. About 150,000 tonnes of onion bulbs were dumped because of this disease. Soil infections have been building in the last 20 years, encouraged by the run of hot summers and the very intensive use of land. Healthy crops were of very good quality with increased dry matter aiding storability, but in springtime supplies will be short.

Most Fusarium strains are fairly weak pathogens. But any damage during the growing season provides openings for invasion and the dry conditions towards harvest encouraged infections. Crop rotation can reduce pathogen populations but, because of the pathogen’s wide host range, cereals should be the preferred break. Onion doubling where two meristems are initiated within the one jacket which malforms the developing bulb was increasingly common in 2022. Tom considers that this disorder results from drought at critical growth stages and is cultivar dependent. The high-risk period is mid-June to mid-July. Interacting factors are quite likely to include soil type and nutrient shortages which cumulatively result in the hormonal chemistry of the bulb, altering favouring excessive cell division in the basal meristem. Doubling can reduce yield by 30% and increases susceptibility to grey mould (Botrytis cinerea) infection during storage. Tom considers crops irrigated by trickle are less stressed and consequently the incidence of doubling is reduced. Leeks are susceptible to Fusarium disease but their main problem was thrip invasion which reached high levels in 2022. Drilling wildflower field margins encourages predators which attack thrips; damage is then reduced by biological control.

Heavy rain in late winter 2022 and early spring 2023 resulted in excessively high soil moisture retention which restricted root extension by baby leaf chard. When drier conditions followed these ‘lazy rooters’ were incapable of seeking water reported Andrew Poole (consultant agronomist, Essex). The plants could not sustain themselves and became nutrient deficiency resulting in pale-yellow growth in the middle of beds. The outer rows survived better because of increased soil drainage into the wheeling and reduced plant competition compared with high density across the rest of the beds. Summer growth and maturity of all salads was damaged by erratic growing conditions in a similar manner to other crops. The high soil surface temperatures caused leaf scorch. Aphid infestations in 2022 were high, seriously further damaging organic salads, baby leaf and celery, reported James Rimmer (VCS Agronomy).In these crops control relies on the use of netting.