HEMEL HEMPSTEAD, England (Reuters) – Britain’s gardening industry could be destroyed by the coronavirus shutdown, growers have warned, with the horticulture sector potentially facing a total stock write-off unlike that of any other industry.
Plant sales have fallen dramatically since the Mothers’ Day weekend of March 21-22 and the national lockdown means there are unlikely to be any sales through to the May bank holiday, traditonally the busiest trading period of the year.
The industry was facing “a perfect storm”, said James Barnes, chairman of the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), which represents 1,400 garden retailers, growers and landscapers.
“At this particular time of year, you’re looking at peak production from the nursery and grower sector just before or just at the start of the gardening season,” he told Reuters on Thursday.
“The issue is really not just one of seasonality but of perishability because all of that plant stock … unless it gets to the end user, unless it gets in the ground, it effectively will die.”
The HTA estimates the value of lost plant sales in Britain will be 687 million pounds ($854 million) by the end of June and has called for a rescue package from government.
Growers face an uphill battle to stay in business.
“The impact has been devastating – we’re having to either dump crop or go over it because it’s just not selling,” said Richard Bryant, owner of plants wholesaler Bryants Nurseries in Hemel Hempstead, north of London.
He said normal daily turnover of around 60,000 pounds is down to about 5,000 pounds.
“Our yearly turnover is two-thirds within this two or three month period, so it’s a huge impact. All the costs and inputs have already gone into the crop and then potentially if we can’t sell it there’s no income until the following May or June,” he said.
Bryant, whose family has traded from the site since the turn of the century, fears bankruptcy without more government help.
“The loans offered by the government won’t help at all because although there’ll be no interest payable for one year, we won’t start making any more money until next May or June. So we’re going to chase our tails, we just can’t catch up,” he said.
Barnes said this year’s disaster has implications for 2021.
“If this thing goes on, what you lose is not just this year but next year because these growers have got to make a decision and have got to have the financial capability to invest in next year’s crop at the end of this summer,” he said.
(Reporting by Will Russell and Natalie Thomas, writing by James Davey; editing by Stephen Addison)
