Cost of growing a cucumber has jumped 25p to 70p due to higher energy costs, stated a report today (31), adding that pressures are likely to push food prices higher and smaller retailers buying from the market may struggle.
As per a recent report, vast glasshouses stand empty in south-east England owing to the soaring cost of energy as farmers are shying away from using heat to grow cucumbers. Elsewhere in the country growers have also failed to plant peppers, aubergines and tomatoes after a surge in natural gas prices late last year which was exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, making the crops economically unviable.
Higher energy prices are hitting British farms which in turn is likely to push food prices further higher at a time of historic inflation, and even threatening the availability of goods.
While last year it cost about 25 pence to produce a cucumber, it has now doubled and is set to hit 70 pence when higher energy prices fully kick in, trade body British Growers says.
“We are now in an unprecedented situation where the cost increases have far outstripped a grower’s ability to do anything about them,” said Jack Ward, head of British Growers.
The National Farmers’ Union says the UK is sleepwalking into a food security crisis. It warns that UK production of peppers could fall from 100 million last year to 50 million this year, with cucumbers down from 80 million to 35 million.
The Lea Valley Growers Association, whose members produce about three-quarters of Britain’s cucumber and sweet pepper crop, said about 90 percent did not plant in January, while half have still not planted and will not plant if gas prices remain high.
“There’s definitely going to be a lack of British produce in the supermarkets,” association secretary Lee Stiles said. “Whether there’s a lack of produce overall depends on where and how far away the retailers are prepared to source it from.”
Fertiliser prices have tripled versus last year, while the cost of carbon dioxide – used both to aid growing and in packaging – and hard-to-attain labour have also shot up.
“Gas prices being so sky high, it’s a worrying time,” grower Tony Montalbano told Reuters. “All the years of us working hard to get to where we are, and then one year it could just all finish”.
All 30,000 square metres of glasshouse at his Green Acre Salads business, which supplies supermarket groups including market leader Tesco TSCO.L, Sainsbury’s SBRY.L and Morrisons, are currently empty.
Last year Montalbano paid 40-50 pence a therm for natural gas. Last week it was 2.25 pounds a therm, having briefly hit a record 8 pounds in the wake of Russia’s invasion.
“Any cut in production from suppliers would undoubtedly put further pressure on prices,” said Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at retail industry lobby group the British Retail Consortium.
UK inflation hit a 30-year high of 6.2 percent in February and is forecast to approach 9 percent in late 2022, contributing to the biggest fall in living standards since at least the 1950s.
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