Kent Apples

I read on the BBC news website today that the supermarkets in the UK expect food prices to fall in about 3 months.  

Below is a story again from the BBC news website form, a month ago about farmers not getting enough money for there crops. Like everybody else they have had increases but got no more money from the supermarkets.

 

Apple farmers in Kent are digging up their orchards in the face of stagnant returns on the fruit.

Fruit grower Richard Budd, from Marden, has removed 50 acres (20 hectares) of apple trees from his land.

He said the UK's food security was "increasingly under threat" as orchards disappear and future buyers will need foreign importers.

The industry is on a "knife edge", according to British Apples & Pears Limited (BAPL).

Apples are being left to rot in the fields while issues with shortages, which could last until May, affect supermarkets in the UK.

Input prices - which include picking, energy, haulage and packaging - have risen 23%, while the amount supermarkets pay growers for their produce has increased 0.8% year-on-year, BAPL said.

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Reuben Collingwood, from Tenterden, is a fourth generation farmer who said his fruit-growing business was facing huge financial losses.

He described the situation as "pretty catastrophic".

"We use a lot electricity for our cold storage to be able to provide food throughout the winter," he explained.

"That's gone up 300% on last year, labour's gone up 15% and it's due to go up again in April."