Farmers in Bury St Edmunds, Elveden and Euston describe the challenges behind supermarket food shortages

A ‘storm’ of factors is leaving arable farms facing enormous challenges, as supermarket shelves lie empty of certain produce.

With tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers in short supply, the region’s farmers have said the produce shortages are the result of issues including last summer’s drought, increasing energy and consumables prices and poor market return on crops.

One farm has reduced its irrigated crop area by nearly a third and another said it had refused to grow some crops where the risk was too high and market return too low.

In some cases, farms could potentially make a loss growing some vegetables.

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) said this week it had been warning about the impact of high energy costs, labour shortages and concerns about water availability in the region ‘for some time’.

This has been compounded by supply issues with countries including Morocco, leading to the empty shelves seen in many supermarkets.

On Bury St Edmunds market, fruit and vegetable traders were selling tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers on Wednesday – but they said stock had come at a high price.

Martin Hart, of Martin Hart and Son, said: “We have got everything but we have had to pay a premium to get it.

“We are working for a lot a lot less margin than we would like, but we want to keep people happy."

Tony Wilson, of New-Bury Fruit Company, also had good stock of salads.

"We can get anything, but the price is just extortionate. We have noticed people coming to us for certain items – different people to our regular customers," he said.

Andrew Long, owner of Hall Farm, Fornham St Martin, said the current situation was a ‘storm’ caused by a number of factors.

“This situation has been in my thoughts for over 12 months. Looking at world issues – what with Ukraine, Brexit and the price of commodities, fertilisers, chemicals, oils and everything around food production – it was fairly obvious there would be an issue going forward.

“We are currently using 50 per cent more cash in our business to grow the same amount of crops as previously.”

He same numerous costs at Hall Farm – which predominantly grows potatoes and onions – had increased, including labour, but part of the blame for the current situation was down to supermarkets.

“We are not getting a fair recompense from the supermarkets to cover our costs, yet the price of the actual food in supermarkets is not relative to the amount of money we are getting,” said Andrew.

“If we are offered a contract which doesn’t cover our costs, we won’t grow it. We have cut back and said ‘no, we can’t grow those crops’ because we can’t make money or even afford to grow them.”

He said last year’s drought had also convinced him this country needed to become food sufficient.

“We can’t be held to imports any longer. We need to be growing as much as we can.

“There are all sorts of things we would like to grow, but we can’t afford to do it. We have to be risk adverse and we have to grow crops we can guarantee a return on," said Andrew, adding that the cost to farms to pump water, run machinery and store crops was ‘huge’.

“We used to spend £400,000 annually on electricity, now it will be near £1 million. Decisions are being made around not using as much electricity or not storing any crops.

“It is a big storm and it is not going to resolve itself overnight.”

Nick Scantlebury, senior farms manager at Elveden Estate, said for the first time in ‘many years’ the estate would not be growing any parsnips, while the potato and onion crops had each been reduced by 25 per cent.

"Things are extremely tight and farmers are not in a position to be subsidising food production or producing it below the costs just to keep the supermarkets happy," said Nick.

“Farmers have reached the point they are now decreasing their level of production.

“Farmers are dramatically reducing their risk – if the numbers don’t stack up they are not growing it. They are not going to continue to work the long hours required for a poor price from the supermarkets and the British consumer.

“The supermarkets are more than happy to go to the continent and buy cheap food. There doesn’t seem to be a will from the Government to producing homegrown produce.

“Things are now as tight as they are going to be. Our costs are through the roof. It is becoming a more difficult job to be a farmer due to the current challenges.”

Andrew Blenkiron, Euston Estate manager and NFU county chairman, said: “Here at Euston we have had to reduce our irrigated crop area, from 1,150 to 850 acres.

“This is primarily as a result of not being able to guarantee water supply when our cropping decisions were made in November. Given the present economic circumstances around massive input costs (fertiliser and electricity costs) and poor returns from the marketplace this decision was relatively easy.

“A great number of fresh produce growers are now making the decision to reduce their cropping area based around not being paid sufficiently for their produce.”

Charles Hesketh, NFU regional policy manager, said: “Our local fruit and vegetable growers have been faced with enormous challenges over the past year from the prolonged drought, which East Anglia is still in, access to labour and soaring energy costs.

“Some have taken the business decision to either scale back or cease production of certain crops.

“This has compounded the challenges with imports and highlighted the importance of domestic food security.”

Tom Bradshaw, NFU deputy president, who farms near Colchester: “Food security is about the UK having a secure supply of safe, nutritious, climate-friendly and affordable food.

“While we will always rely on imports to some degree for produce we can’t grow here or to ensure diversity of supply, as global volatility increases it’s imperative the Government focuses on building resilient domestic food supply chains.”