Growers are warning of shortages on supermarket shelves after freezing temperatures in December and January wiped out 40 per cent of the UK cauliflower crop. According to Martin Tate, commercial director at Lincolnshire Field Products and chairman of the Brassica Growers Association, a ‘perfect storm’ of conditions had hit growers across the country, with those in worst-hit regions such as Lincolnshire losing as much as half of their crops.
“Crops we should be harvesting now were planted on the back of the longest drought for 100 years, followed by flooding, cold weather in December, and another frost in January. You can survive one or two of those, but not all of them.”
Tate said Lincolnshire Field Products had lost 40 per cent of the 650 acres of winter cauliflower it had planted across the 9,000-acre business in Spalding.
Source: fpcfreshtalkdaily.co.uk