Kent plum growers are furious that English plums are poorly represented on the shelves of major supermarkets and some growers are even dumping their unsold crop.
The NFU is questioning multiple retailers and will be contacting the fruit marketing organisations to inquire about the volumes of English plums sold this season and to seek details of marketing initiatives for English plums.
Kent grower Nigel Bardsley told the NFU's South East office that the situation in the British plum market is critical. "Imported produce is being dumped on our market and sold at less than the cost of production," claims Nigel. He knows many plum growers who have decided against picking their crop, instead leaving it to rot. These growers are now considering grubbing up their plum trees.
An NFU South East spokeswoman said: “The English plum season started early this year, owing to the warm weather. But the Victoria plum, the nation’s favourite dessert and culinary plum, which should be widely available now, is very hard to find on supermarket shelves. The NFU wants to know why this is the case when we know that consumers really want to buy English plums and country of origin is a driver of consumer choice.”
The plum season starts with Opal in mid to late July, goes on to Victoria (available from mid August/early September) and finishes with Marjorie’s Seedling (late August/early September).
NFU head of food chain Lee Woodger said: “The UK has seen a bumper crop this year and supplies of British plums are plentiful. However, it seems that a large proportion of plums on supermarket shelves are imported.”
“As well as being very tasty and good value for money, UK Assured plums are produced to higher environmental and food safety standards and are fully traceable.
“Retailers need to be aware that while it might be tempting to stock lower quality imports this year, they will not always be available, and they should work with UK growers to ensure that the industry remains sustainable and able to maintain a secure supply.
“Consumers continually express a desire to purchase more local British produce. The NFU urges retailers to meet this demand by being more flexible and stocking as many British plums as possible.
“Growers who have excess stock may want to make enquiries about selling them into London’s wholesale markets through the Greater London Authority Business Development Manager programme operated by the NFU.”
:: The NFU’s food chain team has been in contact with the major retailers to see what their stocking commitments are and have visited a number of retailer sites in Warwickshire to verify the claims. If you would like the results, please email Lee.Woodger@nfu.org.uk