Price fear over ruined crops

Shoppers in Shropshire who want to give their children the best of British at mealtimes may end up paying through the nose for the privilege this weekend as weeks of torrential rain wreaks havoc with crops across the country.

Home-grown vegetables will be in desperately short supply with consumers facing hefty price increases as a result.

With some harvests destroyed, supermarkets throughout Shropshire and the rest of the UK could be forced to raise prices by tomorrow evening.

Horticulture experts said the widespread flooding had damaged thousands of acres of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflowers, potatoes, onions and carrots.

Sarah Pettitt, the vice-chairwoman of the National Farmers’ Union horticulture board, said the situation was critical.

Whether produce from abroad can make up the shortfall is another concern, given similar problems with drought and floods across mainland Europe.

Newport potato farmer Andrew Watson-Jones said last week he feared for his 150-acre crop.

“It is almost physically impossible to harvest anything at the moment because the ground is so wet,” he said. “Potatoes need a blight spray once a week but there is no way we can get on the fields. There will be inevitable damage.”

Bob Richards, of Sambrook, said he was having similar problems with potatoes. “We are struggling in the low places because we cannot lift potatoes, but we’re in the same position as everyone else. We will just have to manage as best we can.”

Although polytunnels have, in the main, protected the supply of soft fruit, there has still been widescale damage.

Ian and Carole Critchley, who farm strawberries in both Shropshire and Staffordshire, said they had lost up to 20 per cent of their crop.

“It has been catastrophic for everyone, although our crop would be completely and utterly decimated if it weren’t for the polytunnels,” she said.

“At the moment we are losing around 20 per cent of the fruit in each tunnel and it is extremely difficult for our staff, let alone the machines, to work without causing further damage.”

In Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, which supply about 40 per cent of all British produce, thousands of tonnes of vegetables are rotting in the ground, unable to be harvested.

By Rural Affairs Editor Nathan Rous