Support Call for Flood-hit Producers

Environmental groups and farmers have commented that the government is not fully supporting the rural companies who have been adversely affected by the bad weather, and are claiming that more support is given to urban areas. In the report, Parliament’s Select Committee warned that, “The current model for allocating flood defence funding is biased towards protecting property, which means that funding is largely allocated to urban areas. Defra’s failure to protect rural areas poses a long- term risk to the security of UK food production, as a high proportion of the most valuable agricultural land is at risk of flooding.” According to the report, the importance of Britain’s agricultural industry is not fully recognised, and more must be done to support ailing businesses before the 2080s see 130,000 hectares of agricultural land under water.

We speak to producers and retailers to find out more.

John Sheaves, chief executive at Taste of the West
“The Somerset Levels have been and are still under 3 feet of water as we speak, but most have been able to rescue all of their barrels of alcohol and take them to dry buildings. Those particularly affected will take months and years for the infrastructure to recover (houses, buildings, barns, workshops, manufacturing premises etc). “The livestock sector in particular has seen livelihoods pushed to the limits. Their houses, barns, feed areas and grassland is still under three feet of water! Livestock have been evacuated along with the people and some of it has had to be sold before reaching its prime market value, therefore losses in this sector will be huge – well into the millions. The last time something like this happened on this scale was back in the Fifties.”

Rich Clothier, managing director at Wyke Farms
“At Wyke Farms most of our productive areas are on higher ground with free draining. This means the terrible weather has not effected milk production… yet. We do need some dry periods and unless we get a dry week by mid March then grazing will become difficult. If that is the case then we will have to use grain feed until the weather dries up and the ground becomes grazable again.”

Julian Temperley of Somerset Cider Brandy
“As most of the roads around us are impassable with up to 6 feet of water, our local and farm sales are down about 70%. Wholesale and internet shop sales have been fine, however. At this time of year things are normally quite slow so it’s not the end of the world. The floods have caused serious damage to our smaller maturing warehouse which we will have to abandon. Last year’s flood was bad and the EA declared it to be a ‘once in a lifetime event’. This year was a lot worse and the river is still 42% blocked.”

Errol Warman, Trevilley Farm Shop
“On the farm, the wind and rain have affected some of our more delicate crops. Some of our vegetables - the purple sprouting broccoli and the brassicas - have been damaged by the wind. Also, our autumn planted beans, shallots and garlic have all been burnt by the wind and will need to start again. They will thus harvest slightly later in the year than we hoped. With regards to livestock, the cattle should be out of the shed by now, but the wet ground has prevented us from doing this. The knock-on effect from this is that we have having to continue to use winter feed. This, of course, costs us more. Lastly, various jobs, such as sowing, drilling and ploughing, are yet to be started despite being finished this time last year. As a shop, there’s been some minor damage. The recent half term has definitely been quieter than in previous years. I’d be very surprised if our business was particularly strong during this period. 90 per cent of our produce is from Cornwall, and the fish producers have had no fish.”

For more information, see pages 2-3 of the current issue of Speciality Food.