Fears for future of Jersey-grown veg as main island supplier faces closure

There are fears for the future of locally grown vegetables in Jersey as the main supplier to the island faces closure.

It has been a difficult few years for Woodside Farm owner Charlie Gallichan, who lost £100,000 from his daffodil business in the first week of Covid restrictions.

Now he thinks he may have to close the vegetable growing part of the businesses due to escalating costs that farmers are facing, including the cost of employing workers, equipment, fuel and fertilisers:

"We've got rapidly increasing costs and an inability to pass those costs on to our final products and that's not sustainable going forward. Covid has obviously added some pain into that mix."

Charlie, who is a is a fifth generation farmer, has agreed to sell his daffodil and potato exporting businesses and his logistic company has already been sold to Jersey Post. He will make a decision on his vegetable business by the end of the month.

"It's obviously depressing we've been doing this for a long time. It's a bit of a shame but we need to focus on our family and we've had a fantastic team of staff that work with us and I want to do the right thing by them."

Politician Deputy Steve Luce, who is a former farmer, believes the government has failed to step in and support the industry.

He said: "It is worrying because we will rely much more heavily on farmers outside of Jersey to produce our basic crops - potatoes, onions, leeks, winter vegetables - and the prices we pay may go up but it also means of course that food security is impacted slightly, we don't have the ability to grow our own food and of course there's impacts of that as well."

Jersey's government says it has doubled the amount of help available for farmers since 2019. A Rural Economy Strategy will also be in place to help the industry in the future.

Peter Le Maistre who is the President of the Jersey Farmers Union says while it is sad news about Woodside Farm, he is pleased the amount of government support is increasing.