Pandemic threatens hort industry future
The entire horticultural industry, worth £1.4 billion, could be wiped out if the shut-down continues, the sector's main body has declared.
Although online sales of vegetable seed and plug plants is currently booming, the Horticultural
Trades Association (HTA) says that sales of ornamentals, particularly bedding plants, has plunged so severely following the UK shutdown that £687 million could be lost if the situation continues to the end of June and £1.2 billion by December.
With 70 per cent of bedding plant sales made between March and the end of May, around £200 million of crops that are in production or awaiting delivery are likely to be dumped, with future orders cancelled.
Stock already in garden centres, DIY stores, supermarkets and florists ready for the traditional gardening jamboree over the Spring Bank Holidays are sitting unsold.
Around 650 UK growers face complete loss of income and either may not be eligible or cannot afford to take on the debt of a government loan. The
HTA estimates around a third of businesses may fail in a matter of weeks, leading to a direct loss of £250 million to the annual UK economy. The situation affects 15,000 directly and 30,000 indirectly employed in the various businesses.
“We are calling for the government to work with the HTA, as the industry's representative body, to come up with a financial support scheme to help those businesses which have had to scrap perishable stock and are facing a huge financial crisis,” said HTA chair John Barnes. TV gardener Alan Titchmarsh said: “This spring could well bring about the end of British horticulture as we know it. It will decimate an industry that will be unable to recover for the foreseeable future. "Without some form of rescue package we are destined to see our gardens and public open spaces decline as growers find it impossible to recover from unsustainable losses. “I urge the government to put in place a rescue package which will enable British horticulture to survive.”