Cauliflowers, cabbage and broccolis are growing faster than usual and producing a glut as a result of the warm weather. As the vegetable season gets underway, brassica growers have said the earlier ripening of their crops has coincided with barbeque weather, which has seen consumers opting for more salad leaves instead of their seasonal vegetables, which is making life difficult for farmers.

Peter Davies, who grows brassicas in Lincolnshire, told BBC Radio 4’s Anna Hill his business had been hard hit by the change in buying habits. Davies said, “Demand is now probably 40 per cent what it was, say, two weeks ago. We have been fortunate enough to have had some good rains over the last couple of weeks so everything has come on at once. We have had fields that have been planted four, five, six feet apart all coming on at once, so a huge quantity of brassicas available, but demand is very, very slow.”

Mr Davies pointed out that brassicas do not store well and there is currently little demand, either domestic or export, for his produce due to Europe-wide warm weather. He said “This time last year we had already exported over 1.5 million tonnes of UK brassicas... whereas this year, we have done absolutely nothing.” Davies blames the weather from the start of the year for the current predicament, a situation he described as “disastrous.”

He concluded he had no choice but to sell his crop on the wholesale market at around 30p/head; a loss of 10p/head.