Heatwaves Wipe Out Up To 40% Of Peppers As Lea Valley Growers Face Cost Crisis

Lea Valley growers have reported pepper losses of up to 40% after summer heatwaves damaged crops, adding to the financial pressure on businesses already struggling with soaring production costs.

The Lea Valley Growers' Association, whose members produce around three-quarters of Britain's cucumbers and sweet peppers in glasshouses across London, Essex and Hertfordshire, told the BBC that 27,000kg of peppers had been lost over 10 weeks of picking.

Association director Jimmy Russo, from Nazeing in Essex, described the year as "disastrous". He said intense heat had affected pepper roots and growers would have to reconsider how they cultivated the crop in future.

Lower yields have cut sales income just as businesses face sharp increases in their bills. According to the association, fuel costs have risen by 120% over the past year, while fertiliser costs have increased by 60%.

Secretary Lee Stiles said the financial damage extended across the growing community.

"Lea Valley growers have collectively lost around £15m this year following price increases in energy and inputs such as fertiliser due to the Iran war," he told the BBC.

"This is on top of increase in labour costs following wage increases and employers National Insurance."

Stiles said most supermarkets had refused to increase the prices paid to growers for vegetables this year, leaving many businesses losing money and some entering administration.

"Growers have been making efficiencies for decades and work on very thin margins, therefore cannot absorb cost of production increases caused by global events outside of their control."

Tomato production has also suffered, with the association reporting a decline of between 3% and 5%. Russo said extreme temperatures had affected the bees used to pollinate glasshouse crops, with insects collapsing from heat exhaustion.

"We were losing bees everywhere and so if you can't pollinate you don't get the fruit."

The pressure is now turning to how additional costs are shared between growers, retailers and shoppers. Russo argued that supermarkets could accept smaller margins to improve returns to suppliers without increasing shelf prices.

But the British Retail Consortium said retailers were also facing higher costs, citing wages, employers' National Insurance, packaging taxes and the business rates surtax.

"Retailers are absorbing as much of these costs as they can but cannot do so indefinitely while also maintaining sustainable prices for suppliers," a spokesperson said.

Russo said the usual autumn move towards Spanish supplies was approaching as declining light levels restricted domestic production. Higher transport costs would also make those imports more expensive, he warned.

The National Farmers' Union said farmers had endured historically low harvests amid what it described as the worst drought in 50 years.

"Without immediate action, next year's food production and the future of the next generation of farmers are at risk."