‘Food prices will rise further amid international turmoil’

Last week it was announced that a Jersey business which supplied vegetables to Guernsey would be closing its doors this summer after 130 years.

Woodside Farms owner Charlie Gallichan said that inflationary costs within the growing industry were part of the reason he decided to stop farming produce and potentially switch to growing something else.

He also said retailers would be able to tap into the UK supply chain, with some niche growers in the island as well.

Grant Le Tissier, managing director of Manor Farm Foods, echoed that reassuring message but warned of more food price increases. Manor Farm Foods produce is all shipped from the UK, he said.

Asked about food security, he added: ‘I don’t think we are never going to have the produce. But I think what we are going to pay for it is another question.’

The days of Guernsey growing on a major scale had also passed, suggested Mr Le Tissier, not least because the island no longer had the same number of glass houses – and those it did had often fallen into disrepair.

‘What we are seeing with prices today isn’t the end of it. Prices will increase and keep on increasing until the world settles down.’

Dairy farmer Julian Ogier of Le Hechet Farm said growing food locally depended on the economics and the ability to make a decent return.

‘It would be lovely if we could see a bit more diversity in local agriculture, if we could pick up that slack somewhere. But there’s only so much land in the island and it seems most of it at the moment is being used for dairy farming,’ he said.

‘It boils down to the economics. If you could produce food crops economically and make a decent return, I am sure someone would run with it.’

But there were labour costs and inputs, such as fertilisers and sprays, that would need to be imported.

Mr Ogier said major food buyers, such as supermarkets, would tap into their UK supply chains – including specialist food crop farmers.

On subsidies, he personally said he did not favour them – not least because they came to an end and distorted the market. A ‘fair price for a good product’ was important, he said, with his assessment that food was under-priced.

Produce could be grown just as good in Guernsey as anywhere else, but people needed to be educated that it might cost a bit more, added Mr Ogier.