What effect do imported strawberries have on UK growers?

The effect of imported strawberries on UK growers varies on the country from where they come from i.e. the time of year, for example Spanish and Portuguese fruit arriving in April and May can be sold at much cheaper prices than the UK growers can sustain in that period, the fruit is a different quality by variety, texture and flavour and it is grown in large volumes. If we compare production UK growers can not economically grow large volumes in that window, so this can be perceived to be to the detriment of UK growers. However, I believe it is useful for Uk growers as it creates a demand which leads conveniently into the UK crop and the two products can be sold at different prices. I don't think it has a detrimental effect on Uk growers as the positive out weigh the negatives. If there were only UK fruit available in April and May it wouldn't meet the retail or consumer demand.

When it comes to late May, june, August and Setpember the demand for Uk strawberries and strawberries in general outweighs supply; because retail prices do not reflect the demand, the demand is created by retail prices that compete with other summer fruits. One would expect the natural supply and demand curve for strawberries leading to higher retail prices than are currently being achieved, but as I have said this would be out of line with other summer fruits available. You could argue that the availability of Dutch fruit is detrimental to UK growers based on price alone, however I believe that the facts don't bear witness to that assumptions, because the actual prices being paid to Dutch growers are higher than those being achieved by UK marketing companies for their own British grower base, because price fixes for Uk growers are based on competitive products. Top up supplied from Holland or Belgium are achieving high prices because demand for strawberries outweighs the supply.

If you assume that it is wrong to import Dutch and Belgian fruit than you are wrong to make that assumption, all the importers are doing is fulfilling the demand created by UK berries. The inability of Uk producers to meet the demand that is created by the very arrival of Uk berries, and the prices the consumer is willing to pay, forces importers to source from these countries. under these circumstances, when demand is greater than supply, the Dutch auction system is ideal to get the highest price possible. it is an insurance supply that will always cost more than the hime supply, companies like ourselves are unhappy with this situation, we are looking to sponsor more Uk production and looking at alternatives to Holland and Belgium where the labour costs are lower and the auction system is not in use.

In these circumstances, the importing of Dutch and Belgian fruit is not detrimental to the UK growers or the Uk season. However, in the Uk the distribution of sales is not equal to the distribution of supply; this means during the Uk season some marketing executives sit gleefully on extra fruit, whilst others are forced to import. This is detrimental to UK growers and can only be resolved by those companies who refuse to work with others for the benefit of UK growers.

Even though labour costs have done up in the UK, with increases in the minimum wage UK growers are still in a position to take advantage and increase production. In fact our labour rates are still considerably less thatn faced by growers in Holland (12-14 euros per hour). We should be in an ideal position to export our own quality product, the French may not eat our beef but I don't think they have found a reason not to eat our strawberries. But we can't consider that when we can't meet demand from home.

It is the need to import that we must tackle: In order to achieve this we nwant to help current strawberry growers to produce more and introduce new growers to production, we are offering to help in numerous ways, we have the sales and it is crucial that growers only grow to a proven sale, as I have said many times before. This won't please the marketing executives that sit on the extra fruit they can't sell to a proven sale, but it will minimise the need for imports, with the current disadvantages the Dutch and Belgian growers have over the Uk and Eastern European growers on labour costs. I think tha Dutch and Belgian growers have far more to worry about for the future. i also think the Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch and Belgian's make up the majorityof the imported fruit into the Uk during our own season, I believe are a positive thing for the retailer as it maintains their constant interest in the consumption of strawberries in the UK. We must be careful however to only import strawberries that we are happy to eat ourselves, because the sale of some strawberry varieties outside the UK season could be detrimental to  sales of Uk strawberries if the quality, flavour etc puts off the consumer from buying the Uk product when it is available.

Summer 2003