Supply of apples, pears to dwindle, warn farmers

After struggling to find salad for their meals, Brits might be facing apples and pears shortages soon as recent reports state that growers are planting just a third of the number of trees needed to maintain orchards, saying their returns from selling to supermarkets are unsustainable.

According to Ali Capper, head of the British Apples & Pears trade association, farmers in the country are planning to slash the planting by more than 50 per cent, majorly because “supermarket returns that are unsustainable”.

Farmers had planned to order just 480,000 apple and pear trees but that has been slashed to 330,000, as compared to about 1 million new trees that are usually planted each year to maintain the UK’s 5,500 hectares (13,590 acres) of production.

Fruit growers’ costs had increased by about 23 per cent due to rise in costs of picking energy, haulage and packaging.

“The majority of growers are losing money,” The Guardian quoted Capper as saying.

“This is a very serious situation,” said Capper. “The future of apple and pear growing in the UK is seriously in doubt.”

It comes two day after environment minister Thérèse Coffey said on Thursday (23) that she expected the shortages of some fresh food items to last for up to a month. However, some British growers say the shortages could last until May.

Apart from tomato, field crops including leeks, carrots and kale have also been affected by frosts before Christmas that reduced harvests this year as farmers struggle with rising costs and volatile weather. Bad weather in importing countries like Spain has also dwindled UK’s supply.

Tim Casey, the chairman of the Leek Growers’ Association, said that British leeks might be difficult to find for St David’s Day this year. “Leek farmers are facing their most difficult season ever due to the challenging weather conditions,” he said.

“Our members are seeing yields down by between 15 per cent and 30 per cent. We are predicting that the supply of homegrown leeks will be exhausted by April, with no British leeks available in the shops during May and June, with consumers having to rely on imported crops.”

Meanwhile, farming leader Minette Batters has warned that the government need to tackle water crisis else food supplies will be at risk.

“We’ve still got East Anglia, Devon and Cornwall that are in drought,” she said. “We’ve got 63 per cent of rivers below the level that they should be.”

“If we’re going to abstract less, we’ve got to store more,” she said, which would mean constructing more reservoirs. “We’ve got to have the ability to store more, that needs to be thought about very urgently. This is a massive issue.”