The future of the UK's £5 billion horticulture sector looks bleak without urgent steps to safeguard its future.
That was the findings of a new Lords report ‘Sowing the seeds: A blooming English horticultural sector', published today by the cross-party House of Lords Horticultural Sector Committee.
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The report found the sector was often under-prioritised and unappreciated by policy makers, as well as there being a lack of long-term thinking.
Horticulture
Amongst other recommendations, the report urged the Government to make good on its promise to publish a Horticulture Strategy for England, give more support to growers to help them transition to environmentally friendly practices and urgently conduct and publish its review of fairness in the supply chain.
Lord Redesdale, chair of the Horticultural Sector Committee, told Farmers Guardian there were two aspects to tackling the labour issues facing the sector.
The first was education, with calls for horticulture to become part of the national curriculum, although Lord Redesdale said this was unlikely to happen.
"If young people do not see horticulture as a profession we are not going to get the skilled labour force that we need," he said, adding they needed clarity from the Government on the future of T Levels.
See also: More labour woes for horticulture sector
On seasonal labour, he said Government was using the issue as a ‘political football' but there should not be concern about seasonal worker numbers as this was a different issue to asylum seekers and permanent migrants.
With the Government and retailers focused on reducing inflation and providing cheap food, the report highlighted the challenges this brings to the sector, from pressuring margins to importing more from other areas of the world.
Lord Redesdale said some of the margins horticultural growers were making were ‘unsustainable'.
"And for certain crops, it means that farmers are just not planting them," he said.
"If we put farmers out of business we will not have the supplies. We will be taking from places which are already short of water."
Defra strategy
The sector was often overlooked by Ministers, with the report calling for a more cross-sector approach. This was particularly true for ornamentals.
See also: Empty shelves will force Government to listen, say NFU
Lord Redesdale gave the example of seasonal labour, and the lack of a joined up approach between Defra and the Home Office.
The report suggested the establishment of a specific Minister for Horticulture, although the report said Farming Minister Mark Spencer was sceptical saying ‘the difficulty is that if you go down that route there are not enough ministers to deal with all the individual sectors' and several challenges facing the horticultural sector crossover with those facing other sectors.
On the demise of AHDB horticulture, Lord Redesdale said he believed it had been disastrous and this was one of the reasons why there was call for greater focus on research and development in the report.
He added that it contained over 160 recommendations for Government and he believed it would force Defra to think about horticulture in more detail.
And with a general election looming in the near future, he hoped Defra's response to it would then be taken up by the next Government.
NFU response
NFU horticulture and potatoes board chair Martin Emmett said:"As this report shows, we have a real opportunity to boost the whole horticulture sector and produce more fruit, veg, plants and flowers, and deliver greater health and environmental outcomes for the nation.
"While soaring costs and supply chain challenges are significantly impacting confidence within the sector, British growers have an ambition for growth. But we cannot do it without Government support. The Government's own food strategy, published in 2022, implies it shares this ambition, but we must see this backed up with tangible actions."
Mr Emmett stressed the importance of a quick and thorough response from the Government to this report, as well as multiple previous reports still awaiting responses.
He said the Government had promised to deliver a long-term strategy for the sector.
"Yet we continue to see a contraction in the sector due to soaring costs rather than government action which will give growers the confidence to invest and boost production," he said.
"British shoppers want more home-grown produce and plants, and we could grow more if we had the right political and supply chain policies in place. The Government needs to show that it champions this vision and set out its plan for overcoming the many barriers that are holding UK horticulture back."
Defra response
A Defra spokesperson said: "The domestic horticulture sector is crucial to the resilience of our food system and an important part of the wider economy.
"We are hard at work supporting the sector with the challenges they face - which is why we have provided 45,000 seasonal workers to help pick crops next year, and why at the Farm to Fork summit we announced a comprehensive range of measures to support this essential industry, including our forthcoming consultation on the fairness in the horticulture supply chain."
