Farmers forced to throw away produce as wet weather reduces consumer demand for seasonal fruit and vegetablesBritain’s farmers have suffered the wettest April to June in most of their lifetimes – however the key difficulty for thousands has not been the effect of the weather on their crops, however on the appetites of consumers. The market is awash with summer fruits and salad that have been left unwanted on supermarket shelves.”There is no difficulty of availability of salads, despite the wet conditions since our growers are prepared for that,” said James Hallett, chief executive of the British Growers’ Association. “The difficulty has been a lack of demand –human beings have not been wanting to eat salads. It hasn’t been the summer for it, so far.”The jubilee street parties and Wimbledon have not been enough to tempt human beings outside to their barbecues, pub gardens and traditional summer fare, as pouring rain and shivering temperatures have blighted outdoor plans.”We can get the produce to the shelves, however human beings are not buying it,” said Hallett. “This has been the absolute issue, and it’s made it very dense for producers. We don’t know how it’s going to employment outside.”Jonathan Lukies, a fruit grower and arable farmer near Stansted airport, reported alike problems: “We’ve had to throw away half of our fruit – mainly strawberries and raspberries – that have come ripe. The market is awash with fruit, and prices are very poor, since the weather is not conducive to human beings wanting a barbecue or summer fruits – it’s been umbrella weather, instead.”He has had to hire workers just to clear away the unsuitable fruit – such as berries that have split owing to also much moisture, to prevent them succumbing to disease and infecting the rest of the crop – as his fields have been deluged by three times the normal rainfall for the at the end hardly any months. Most of these berries can only be thrown away. Some of the remainder are being made into jam and ice cream, however this represents much lower value than selling fresh fruit. “This is the worst weather in a generation – I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s the worst year for soft fruit ever, it’s been horrific,” said Lukies.Many of the UK’s salad and summer crops –such as tomatoes and cucumbers – are grown in greenhouses or under polytunnels, protecting them from the worst of the unseasonal weather. However much while some green crops grown in the fields, such as lettuces, have been progressing well despite a lack of sunshine, many will end up wasted without a market, said Hallett. Jill Vaughan and her husband run Delfland Nurseries in March, Cambridgeshire, growing a variety of crops, including tomatoes, brassicas and leeks, for sale to gardeners. While their glasshouses had protected their plants from the weather changes, Vaughan said the heavy rainfall in the at the end quarter had brought about another difficulty for their customers.”The slugs have been a difficulty exceptionally for the gardeners since of the sheer wetness, which method they can seed anywhere,” she said.The wet weather had provided the perfect conditions for slugs to thrive in, and this year gardeners in the UK had been affected by an invasion of Spanish stealth slugs, which have hybridised with native British slugs, proving to be a particularly vicious pest.The National Farmers’ Union said it was also early in the season to predict how much the yields of crops such as wheat and barley would be affected by the weather. However, those crops are heavily dependent on a dry spell for the harvest – not just to ripen the crops, however to place machinery such as combine harvesters in the fields.In normal years, much the British summer could be relied on to produce enough sunny days to ripen the crops and constitute it imaginable to capture them into barns. In poor years, farmers can much outsmart nature by drying crops mechanically, though at a high cost energy-wise. This year, however, much that may not be feasible if the crops fail to grow or are subject to moulds and other diseases while still in the field.The result could be higher aliment prices for consumers, as well as a disastrous year for farmers.Lukies said he hoped for bigger weather in coming years: “I’m not convinced that this is [human-induced] climate alter – the weather varies naturally. However if it keeps getting worse, I will have to be convinced.”WeatherFarmingFood & drinkFood & drink industryFruitFiona HarveyLaurie Tuffreyguardian.co.uk © 2012 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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