A squeeze on margins is threatening berry growers across the county, with the latest national figures suggesting some 40% could be forced out of business.
And it’s prompted those within the sector to call on supermarkets to think again about the prices they are paying producers in a bid to prevent more growers from toppling into the red.
The British Berry Growers (BBG) organisation, which represents locally-grown berries sold in the UK, polled growers and discovered almost half (47%) were not making a profit.
Some 40% said unless things improved they could be out of business by the end of 2026.
They cite squeezed supermarket prices and rising costs as a double-whammy of pressures they are struggling to overcome.
Kent’s Nick Marston, who was a non-executive director at Hugh Lowe Farms near Maidstone for a number of years, is chairman of the BBG.
He explained: “If you look at the cost of producing berries, we are very heavily exposed to the cost of direct labour. Over half of the production cost of a punnett of strawberries is manual labour.
“Hourly-paid labour has become substantially more expensive over the last four years. So if we look at gross costs, the cost of production is inflated by about 30% over three years, which is a a major increase in costs.
“It’s a concern right the way across the country. Berries are grown not only in Kent, but in the other areas of the South of England, in the Midlands, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and in Scotland on a large scale.
“If you look at berry growers, not only do we employ. 30,000 seasonal workers, but we employ around 3,000 full-time staff too. We are an important factor in the rural economy and I think that deserves attention both from government but also from our retail customers.
“We are already starting to see some small and small medium-sized businesses stop and the challenge is even for the large well-invested businesses – they won’t carry on doing it for long if they aren’t able to make a return on their investment.
“It is important retailers sit down with their growers and discuss the thorny issue of the cost of production. We understand retailers are trying to keep selling prices to customers down, but equally, prices have gone up and growers haven’t seen a fair share of that so far. It’s important they do.”
They won’t carry on doing it for long if they aren’t able to make a return on their investment.
Concerns about the future of the sector came as shoppers spent a record £847.5 million on strawberries over the last 12 months.
But 89% of growers who were no longer profitable said they stopped making a profit after 2020, due largely to the rise in the cost of production, BBG said.