‘There will be fewer British tomatoes on the shelves’: soaring energy costs force growers to quit
L ee Stiles saw 10 growers leave “London’s salad bowl” last year as they struggled to make ends meet. He expects a similar number in his Lea Valley Growers Association to shut up shop this year, as costly energy bills push them under.
The increase in prices threatens to open up a new front in the salad crisis, which resulted in supermarkets having to limit purchases of items including tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers during a cold spell in southern Spain and north Africa in February.
Stiles fears British tomatoes will be late to our baskets this spring, with less choice and higher prices. “There will be fewer British tomatoes on the shelves,” he says.
The National Farmers’ Union has warned that this year there could be the lowest production of British tomatoes since 1985, after hefty rises in the cost of production – including energy to heat and light greenhouses – forced many growers to make cuts, mothball greenhouses or shut down altogether.
Stiles says some growers plan to mothball greenhouses or switch to more lucrative crops such as cucumbers, aubergines or sweet peppers. Usually only about one or two growers move out of the business each year.
He says about half of the group’s growers have yet to plant tomatoes, so their crop will not be harvested for at least three months.
In a typical winter, only about 5% of the tomatoes consumed in the UK are grown in Britain, and this winter it was probably a lot less, as farmers did not want to pay the bills for the lighting and heating required.
In the summer months it can be more than 50%, gradually gearing up from the end of March, but it is still all grown in greenhouses that require heating, mainly with gas, and costs have ballooned since the war in Ukraine began just over a
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