Grower Sue Lamb writes on strawberry and peony season – and the lack of attention the sector gets from the Government

Grower Sue Lamb pens her Word on the Ground column about the onset of peony and strawberry season...

Peony and strawberry season are in full swing and although strawberries are slightly later than previous years it does signal that summer is upon us.

The longer growing period should make the fruit extremely sweet and plentiful. One hopes that there are enough hands available, and the crop does not go wasted. Along with the Ponies comes the Delphinium, Larkspur, Sweet Williams, Cornflower to name but a few from outside production with heavenly Stocks full on from under glass.

This all sounds good but confidence in growing I believe faces many challenges and although the government talks about food security and ornamental horticulture always gets the rub off from this. It is still a long way down the line when it comes to seeing any action and remains in many cases lip service only.

I have always been a fan of open book costings; I believe if operated honestly it allows all parties to make a profit which is always necessary to invest going forward, and at the same time cuts out a lot of under handed dealings. All sectors compete with imported product, often totally unnecessarily and not a like for like product and I think if there was more transparency all the way through the supply change, we would stand more chance of retaining and possibly improving the 60% now claimed of British food on offer plus lift the Ornamental offer.

We all understand everything is about price, but we also know there can be many well-hidden costs. We have seen empty shelves this spring and to try and not repeat this growers need confidence and confidence would be gained from transparency from honest buyers. Whilst we appreciate energy has caused many of these shortages plus adverse weather abroad, energy hopefully will go down again but wages have increased substantially and will not go down so a percentage of that increased cost is there for good and we shall not revert to the prices of two years ago and that must be recognised and accepted.

Not all is doom and gloom, British Strawberry season brings us nearer to Wimbledon, always a priority in my calendar. So as always look out for the British Flag when buying any fresh produce and let’s hope we have plenty of sunshine to come.