Industry News

Press Release October 2022

British Growers Association Announces New Client Partnership

British Growers Association is delighted to announce GB Potatoes Organisation Ltd has chosen British Growers to assist with setting up this brand-new association. GB Potatoes will be joining 29 other businesses operating across the Fresh Produce Sector which currently make up the British Growers Membership.

GB Potatoes is an industry led collaboration. Their purpose is to bring the whole GB potato industry together and work with existing trade associations and industry bodies as a collective group to promote their sector interests. Created in light of the winding down of AHDB Potatoes, the organisation will look to become the potato industry hub. This will allow the continuation of significant potato industry work, safeguard and harness decades of potato research and data, offer a function to work with reputational and crisis management issues, provide an ability to pre-empt potential industry challenges and look at the ongoing matters that arise as a result of Brexit. GB Potatoes will be a single point of contact for the potato industry.

Lisa Eagles, the Managing Director at British Growers, commented “British Growers is delighted to have aligned itself with a worthy organisation and are pleased that the GB Potatoes objectives associate so closely with British Growers own, namely, to support the safeguarding of the UK horticultural sector. The British Growers provision of shared experience and knowledge of setting up industry groups will allow the organisation to fulfil its own objectives of ensuring the future sustainability of the industry.”

GB Potatoes will be funded via a voluntary membership subscription, which will be owned and controlled by the growers and supply chain, thus establishing an independent organisation with cross industry representation.

Mark Taylor, Inaugural Chairman of GB Potatoes, said “Our launch couldn’t come at a more important time for the GB Potato Industry. Working as a collective group must be the way forward if we are to both understand, and then work through the current turbulent times. Whilst recognising different views from across the industry, I strongly encourage everyone to engage and get involved. The Great British Potato needs to be championed!”

If you would like more information about the organisation, please visit http://www.gb-potatoes.co.uk or alternatively e-mail info@gb-potatoes.co.uk.

The III International Symposium on Carrot and other Apiaceae is coming to the UK in 2023. The event will be held over 4 days, starting on Monday 2nd October and finishing on Thursday 5th October 2023. The Symposium will involve a series of Symposium sessions and seminars held at the York Racecourse and with a variety celebratory dinners held around the historic city of York. The Symposium is joining forces with the British Carrot Growers Association who are inviting delegates to visit their annual Field Demonstration Day.

The Chair of the Scientific Committee, Professor Rosemary Collier, University of Warwick, is inviting researchers from across to world to submit their abstracts for presentations at the Symposium.

The Symposium will consist of plenary and specialised (scientific and technical) sessions and will address the current issues concerning the production of carrots and other Apiaceae for human consumption.  The topics covered by the Symposium are likely to include:

• Market and consumer expectations
• Genetics and genomics
• Crop improvement
• Genetic diversity including wild relatives
• Biology and physiology
• Cultural practices: fertilization, irrigation, weed control
• Quality of products and post-harvest issues (transport, health impact, …)
• Crop protection: invertebrate and vertebrate pests, plant pathogens, weed control, Integrated Pest, Disease and Weed Management
• Seeds

Participants may offer an oral presentation or a poster presentation using the link below. The Scientific Committee will inform the author if the communication is accepted.  The deadline for abstract submission is 31^st January 2023, your abstract can be modified up until 15th March 2023.

Authors of abstracts accepted for presentation (both oral/poster) are expected to register for the symposium. All oral presenters, including invited and keynote speakers, must submit a manuscript for Acta Horticulturae. Authors of posters are welcome to submit a manuscript for Acta Horticulturae but posters cannot be published as such.  The deadline for submission of papers is 30^th April 2023, whilst the deadline for final modifications is 30th June 2023.

Paper Submission – International Symposium on Carrot and Other Apiaceae (carrotsymposium.com)

Despite a favourable start to the 2022 vegetable season growers are facing increasing challenges in trying to produce the nation’s supply of vegetables. An internal report commissioned by British Growers to look at the true costs of production for broccoli and carrots has highlighted that recent inflation busting cost increases have raised production costs to unprecedented levels and an urgent reset in the returns to growers is now vital to ensure continuity of supply in the future.

In April the average rate of inflation for agricultural inputs hit 28% driven by massive increases in fuel, energy, labour and fertiliser – all essential elements of vegetable production. In recent weeks the challenges facing growers have been compounded by the effects of drought and record temperatures with many of the key vegetable growing areas recording minimal rainfall since the Jubilee at the start of June. Lack of rain is not only affecting crops planted in the spring but crops which are being planted now for harvest during the winter.

Brassica growers have already been reporting plans to cut back production by as much as 20% and this coupled with the anticipated losses due to the ongoing drought could leave UK veg supplies in a deficit situation as we move into the autumn and winter. Moreover, possible restrictions on water usage could make an already difficult situation even worse.

Jack Ward CEO at British Growers said vegetable growers are facing a difficult situation. Earlier in the season we commissioned a report to look at the true costs of production and the returns growers need to ensure production here in the UK remains viable. The report showed that growers need a significant increase for their products to cover the inflationary effects on input costs and the financial impacts of the drought. In many instances, the retail price of vegetables is lower than it was 5 years ago despite five years of cost increases. In the last 12 months we have seen cost increases at retail of over 20% in other sectors (such as dairy and butter) yet the inflation in chilled veg is at 6.3% which means that growers and retailers are between them absorbing some of the extra production costs in an already fragile sector, a situation that cannot continue.

This lack of return is draining confidence out of the industry at a time when the UK needs to be investing in vegetable production. Unless growers can see a way of securing viable returns for the risks they take in growing vegetables, they will turn to other lower risk options such as growing other less risky crops like wheat, sugar beet, energy crops or even converting more land to solar farms and we are already starting to see this said Jack Ward. We urgently need a reset in the way UK vegetable growers are rewarded to ensure the risks from weather and the inflationary costs are more equitably shared across the supply chain.

Production challenges are becoming increasingly common due to the weather volatility. In recent years vegetable production has had to contend with drought, record rainfall, record amounts of frost and this year temperatures which significantly affect crops growing in the ground. During the season production from UK farms will represent the majority of retailer supplies. The production dips we are anticipating will make supplies of veg tight as we move into late autumn and winter. This situation is not confined to the UK. Other parts of Europe which have traditionally supplied the UK when domestic production was short are experiencing similar issues with production costs increases and record temperatures.

All parts of the supply chain need to work together to create a sustainable supply chain. The relentless pressure over the last five years to reduce costs has left growers with nowhere to go in the face of the current challenges and expecting growers in other parts of the world to make good any shortfall in domestic production may no longer be the solution. We face global food security challenges and therefore need a properly funded UK vegetable sector in order to meet the growing demand for this critical element of our national diet.

Press Release June 2022

British Growers Association Announces New Client Partnership

British Growers Association is delighted to announce the Responsible Sourcing Scheme Ltd has chosen British Growers to manage their administration and accounting services. They will be joining 28 other groups within the horticultural and fresh produce industries, which currently make up the British Growers Membership.

The Responsible Sourcing Scheme (RSS) is an industry led collaboration of growing media manufacturers, retailers, growers, DEFRA, the HTA and NGOs, like RHS and Plantlife. Created in advance of the Government’s plan to ban the use of peat within the amateur sector by 2024, and in the professional sector by the end of 2028, the scheme is designed to encourage the industry to commit to a sustainable and peat-free future, and to ensure that materials used as an alternative to peat are as responsibly sourced as possible.

Lisa Eagles Operations Director at British Growers commented “British Growers is delighted to have aligned itself with a worthy scheme and are pleased that the RSS objectives aligns so closely with British Growers own; namely to support the safeguarding of the UK horticultural sector. British Growers provision of shared administrative and accountancy services will allow the scheme to fulfil its own objectives of ensuring the future sustainability of the industry.”

The primary objective of the RSS is to promote sustainability within the growing media industry, by allowing manufacturers and users of growing media to understand and measure how their choice of growing media materials impacts on seven criteria. These criteria include, energy use, water use, social compliance, habitat and biodiversity, pollution, renewability, and resource use efficiency. The scheme went live at the beginning of 2022, and with many of the UK’s major manufacturers already signed up, the RSS logo will start to appear on bags of growing media throughout the year.

Steve Harper, CEO at Southern Trident Limited and Chairman of the Responsible Sourcing Scheme said “The Responsible Sourcing Scheme for Growing Media are delighted to be working with the BGA to administer the scheme on an ongoing basis. It’s great to see the scheme now welcoming both new member manufacturers and retailers, the new website and the logos on pack. Andy Smith who has joined the BGA to administer the RSS for us allows us to be more professional and proactive as the scheme continues to grow. We look forward to forging a long and positive relationship with both Andy and the BGA.”

If you would like more information about the scheme, please visit the RSS website, or alternatively e-mail info@responsiblesourcing.org.uk

The Onion and Carrot Conference is back for 2022.

The Associations for British Carrots and British Onions have come together once again to bring you the 2022 Onion & Carrot Conference, taking place at the East of England Arena & Events Centre in Peterborough on Tuesday 29th November 2022

The organising committee are pleased to announce that Elsoms and Bejo Zaden will be taking on one of the Conference’s Main Sponsor slots. We are thrilled to have the support of such prestigious companies to assist in the support and organisation of the industry’s conference.

“As the key supplier of Carrot and Onion seeds to UK Growers Bejo/Elsoms are proud and delighted to support the Carrot and Onion Conference this year. It is great news that the BCGA and BOPA are able to hold the event again and we look forward to a great conference and dinner. We’re sure it will be a great success and wish everyone all the best after what has been a very challenging few years for the industry. It will be a really good opportunity to meet with everyone again and catch up on technical updates”

Chris Bettison, Elsoms

We would also like to take this opportunity to report that Stourgarden will be sponsoring the Conference Programme, Hazera have agreed to sponsor the Gala Dinner Drinks Reception and Moulton Bulb Co are kindly sponsoring the Gala Dinner Wine.

We owe a massive thanks to the companies that support our event through sponsorship and exhibiting at the event.

The event will host a large exhibition area and allow plenty of networking opportunities for delegates and exhibitors. If you would like further information about our sponsorship and exhibition options, please visit our website http://www.onionandcarrotconference.co.uk/.

Speaker announcements will be made over the coming months, we will look forward to sharing our line up with you.

We are also pleased to announce that ticket sales are now on sale. Buy your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/onion-carrot-conference-2022-tickets-290282933067

On behalf of the organising committee, we look forward to welcoming you to the 2022 Onion & Carrot Conference on Tuesday 29th November 2022.