Crisis-hit growers must be able to renegotiate contracts – NFU

Growers facing relentless price and labour pressures must be able to renegotiate contracts within the season to help deal with the volatility, NFU Horticulture and Potatoes Board chairman Martin Emmett has said.

The West Sussex grower told an NFU council meeting on Tuesday (11 October) that the “extreme anxiety and concern” within horticulture was “probably the greatest in living memory”.

He said a lack of confidence due to soaring costs and uncertainty over key policy issues such as labour was leading to contraction within the horticulture sector and fears about a fall in domestic fruit and veg supply.

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“We do need to do something about our contract and supply negotiations with our biggest customers,” Mr Emmett said. “It is the process I am talking about, not the price check but the process.

“The capacity to renegotiate within season is absolutely key. There is just too much volatility. If we can’t do that, growers are going to be forced into an ‘if in doubt, don’t grow’ mindset.

“If you can’t be clear you can cover your costs by the end of the season, how can you commit at the beginning of the season?”

Mr Emmett said he felt “quite a degree of personal responsibility” to both growers and the public.

“We are talking about potential food supply problems; it is in the national interest to support our industry,” he said.

“Pumpkins do typify the sort of problems we are getting at the moment. Shortage of water has meant in some parts of the country pumpkins being very small and outside specification. Are we getting the chance to renegotiate? Not always.”

Retailer discussions

Phil Hambling, head of food and farming at the NFU, said conversations with retailers about the pressures facing producers had been ongoing for some time, as agriculture businesses dealt with the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

“We of course have to tread a very careful line here in terms of articulating that pressure and being careful not to overstep the line to individual commercial negotiations, but we have been pressing the case very hard,” Mr Hambling told the council meeting.

He said the response to inflationary pressures and support offered to producers by retail chief executives had been varied.

“Those who are willing to invest in the future and secure supply for the future are putting their arms around their supplier base and responding very quickly. Others have taken longer than they ought to have done.

“It is important for us to carry on pushing as hard as we can, to show that pressure throughout the supply chain.”