The strawberry season in England saw an early peak from the June bearer crop, but according to Chris Rose from Asplins Producer Organisation, cool weather has led to a longer dip than anticipated.
“The market has been short for a few weeks which is good for the growers as demand has been strong. I am hoping that as volumes increase we don’t have an oversupply in the coming weeks.”
Any shortfall created by a lack of food service demand has been made up by increased retail demand throughout the lock down.
Wimbledon which would normally have started in the last week of June was of course cancelled this year, but Chris said that Wimbledon doesn’t actually fit that well into the production cycle of strawberries and creates a peak in demand when there is less fruit available. So this year has seen a nice steady demand throughout summer.
“Raspberries also saw a large peak and are now in a dip in production, we are waiting for the Autumn fruiters. Demand has been strong for raspberries too this season.
Across the UK the labour situation has been better that expected, the workers from Eastern Europe have not been put off and have made their way into country one way or another.
“We are however very concerned about next year and the affect Brexit will have on our labour supply from Europe, labour costs will most certainly increase. There are UK workers available and many have worked at farms this season, although even where retention levels were good productivity was low compared to the Eastern European workers.”
For more information:
Chris Rose
Asplins Producer Organisation
Tel: +44 1795 594811
Email: [email protected]