British winter cauliflower producers have expressed serious concerns about supermarkets increasingly favouring imports from Spain and France over local supplies.
Numerous key suppliers confirm that retailers have replaced British cauliflower with European imports, leaving large quantities of UK-grown cauliflower unharvested and raising questions about the crop’s future viability.
This development also puts pressure on retailers’ publicly stated commitments to support British farming and minimise both food miles and food waste. Greville Richards, Managing Director of Southern England Farms, noted that the shift is “causing huge frustration for many growers in Cornwall.” Growers in Lincolnshire and Kent have reported similar experiences.
In Kent, Trevor Bradley warned that current market conditions threaten the long-term viability of future plantings, noting that local production has dwindled to a fraction of its former levels. He also challenged supermarkets’ net-zero pledges, citing the stark difference in transport times: “From a carbon footprint perspective, it’s disastrous,” he said, contrasting four-day deliveries from Spain with the four-to-five hours needed for British produce.
British suppliers emphasise that cauliflower is a major winter crop, comparable to broccoli, with “tens of lorry loads going to retailers every day.” One supplier explained: “But retailers are putting more and more programmes into France and Spain in the winter, and that’s what everyone is getting up in arms about. There’s a diminishing market of orders for homegrown product.”
Hundreds of acres in Cornwall have been left to waste, with growers forced to chop up and discard perfectly marketable produce. This comes despite the government’s increased focus on national food security.
In a LinkedIn post from February, Nigel Clare, director at Peloton Produce, commented on sales declines for winter cauliflower growers of between 16 and 40 per cent this season. He wrote:
“I am still seeing imported cauliflower in our markets and on the high street when UK product has been and is in abundance. Please purchase UK produce and support UK growers and our economy.”
This unease arises at a time when cauliflower has surged in popularity among UK consumers. Once overshadowed by broccoli, it has gained renewed attention through greater culinary innovation and rising interest from the US. However, recent Defra figures show that in 2023, the UK cauliflower planting area dropped by 1.1 per cent to 8,754 hectares, with total production down by 10 per cent to 71,000 tonnes. Unfavourable autumn and winter weather pushed market prices up by as much as 50 per cent, to £1.26 per head, resulting in a 33 per cent increase in the crop’s value to £75 million. Currently, retail prices are roughly £1.19 for medium heads and £1.80 for extra-large varieties.
Some have suggested that supermarkets prefer Spanish cauliflower because extra-large heads—unattainable in England—are believed to be more appealing for families. Opponents argue that such larger sizes could lead to increased food waste in smaller households.
A spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium stated: “Food retailers source, and will continue to source, the vast majority of their food from the UK. In winter, supermarkets source cauliflower from both British and European suppliers to ensure availability for customers due to volatility of the crop.”
Looking to the future, an anonymous Lincolnshire brassica grower has cautioned that consistent imports of extra-large heads may be steering consumers away from medium-sized British cauliflower. He said: “As they are bringing over this larger product, people are trading into it, whereas if it wasn’t on shelf, they wouldn’t have the choice. They’d have to buy the UK medium cauliflower, and they wouldn’t look back.”
He added that domestic producers remain at a disadvantage: “We are selling less UK cauliflower because of it, and we have had to look at other lower-value markets. It’s frustrating not being able to sell all of the crop the way we’d want to sell it.”
Trade groups are now intervening. David Simmons, chairman of the Brassica Growers Association, highlighted five main concerns about the surge in Spanish imports: food miles, food security, local employment, community value, and product freshness. He warned, “Next year everybody will be wondering whether to grow as much. If our industry declines significantly here, and they get a problem in Spain with the climate, or strikes or anything else, they could end up with shortages appearing.”
Simmons also indicated that some producers have had no choice but to leave crops unharvested. “Some retailers are selling mainly British cauliflower, however I think all supermarkets should be supporting British and buying it wherever they can,” he said. “It’s very important they keep that going, and the public should be looking out for British cauliflower when shopping and supporting British growers.”
According to Jack Ward of British Growers, the organisation is considering a formal appeal to supermarkets. “We’ve got into a crazy situation where we are ploughing in cauliflowers in Cornwall while trucking them up from Spain,” he stated. Ward continued, “It does not suggest that retail and supply is working hand in glove to make the best of the situation, and that is surely wrong. We are wasting good, wholesome, nutritious food and then spending a fortune bringing it in from the other side of Europe. It is radically wrong, and something needs to change.”
Ward emphasised that cauliflower is one of the few vegetables available year-round in the UK, suggesting that supermarkets have no reason not to support it. Richards similarly noted that many UK growers are ready to boost production if they receive the necessary assurances from retailers—a situation that intensifies the current sense of frustration.
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