The chair of the British Carrot Growers Association (BCGA) has said that due to profits being squeezed to extremely tight margins, many farmers have decided to stop growing them.
BCGA is gearing up to launch a new initiative to safeguard the future of carrot growers.
National Carrot Awareness Day will take place on October 3, 2024, where people will be encouraged to buy, get creative and cook with carrots.
Chair of the British Carrot Growers Association (BCGA) and York-based carrot farmer, Rodger Hobson said:
“We want to communicate both the challenges and joys of growing carrots, which has a high disease susceptibility, high input costs and conflictingly low output values – which means making a viable return a struggling reality for UK carrot growers.
“It’s time to make a bit of noise about the nation’s favourite vegetable – the carrot.”
Growers
Carrots are harvested in Britain 12 months of the year. This means that 700,000t of carrots are produced annually, which is equivalent to 70 times the weight of the Eiffel Tower.
Due to the natural seasonal weather vagaries, alongside climatic changes, carrot growers are always innovating, developing new management techniques and trialling varieties to compete for survival of the crop.
Margins for growers may be tight, but opting for carrots rather than other items in the supermarket certainly comes with perks.
Hobson continued: ““This multipurpose vegetable is iconic. Carrots are such good value for money and extremely versatile, with high nutritional value. I challenge the British public to find anything better value than 6p – the price of a carrot – to consume one of their five-a-day.”
An International Carrot Day already exists and is celebrated annually in the USA on 4 April.
In the USA, ‘International Carrot Day’ already exists and is celebrated annually on April 4, however, this date does not align with the season for the UK crop, which resulted in Britain’s top five carrot growers (Huntapac Produce Ltd,. Kettle Produce Ltd,. M.H Poskitts Ltd,. Burgess Farms, and Strawson Ltd,.) creating their own version of the day.
Every year one of the five big UK carrot growers hosts the event which showcases new varieties, trial plots and brings in speakers to evaluate the future of the sector.
“For us carrot enthusiasts it’s a huge event and we want to share our love of this British-grown vegetable with a wider audience,” the chair of BCGA said.
