Many apple growers in the UK are going out of business because they are not getting a fair price during the cost-of-living crisis. Ali Capper, an apple and hops grower and former NFU horticulture board chair, said it was clear growers were not getting the returns to cover increased costs.
Ms Capper said on BBC Radio 4 that growers were all losing money and they are having to take out their orchards: "They can't afford to replant them - that means that there won't be the same quantity of British fruit coming forward into the future and some of the businesses are actually going under, going bust and this is not sustainable. We've got the perfect climate to produce apples in this country. It is mad that we would rather import them than pay a fair price to British growers."
While production costs had risen about 23%, she said the amount they received was only up an average of 0.8%. "I think there is something fundamentally wrong - it is not fair that the shopper is being charged 27, 25%, 46% more for apples and yet that increase in price is not coming back down to the growers.”
Source: bbc.com