Call to "guarantee" garden centres will be among the first to re-open

An open letter from NFU President Minette Batters with horticulture and potatoes board chairman Ali Capper applauded retailers’ quick response to the change in consumer buying with the focus having been on providing essential food supplies.

But they also asked, now food provision is beginning to stabilise, for much-needed support in the ornamental sector. The rallying cry to retailers comes as part of a wider support plan to help the ornamentals sector which has been feeling the impact of key outlet closures such as garden centres, florists and public events due to the pandemic.

In a list of ‘asks’ for the Government to support the sector, the NFU is requesting a “guarantee” that garden centres will be among the first businesses allowed to re-open under a phased exit of the lockdown.

But Baroness McIntosh of Pickering said she hoped the re-opening of garden centres and nurseries, with the appropriate guidelines implemented, would be considered.

“As nurseries can adapt to the social distancing rules probably better than most other businesses and given the seasonality of their produce, I hope NHS England and Defra will urgently allow them to re-open,” she said.

“Flowers and plants have a huge role in our national life not just for promoting wellbeing which is particularly needed at this time of acute isolation but also their biodiversity role,” she said.

Baroness McIntosh also highlighted the “huge” contribution nurseries made to the rural economy with the horticultural sector, particularly the ornamental sector, contributing £24m to the national economy without any support.

But in the meantime, the NFU has urged retailers who are open to do all they can to support businesses which have suddenly been left without any of their key outlets.

“Since the start of lockdown our supermarkets have been rightly focused on ensuring the public has access to essential foods and products during the coronavirus outbreak,” Mrs Batters said.

“We are now in a period where food sales have stabilised, and we ask that retailers restock British flowers and plants.

“The ornamentals sector is a truly vibrant part of British production and delivers huge benefits for society.

“We need to do all we can during this crisis to protect its future.”

Mrs Capper raised the issue of flowers and plants being perishable goods and said growers were looking for ways to get their products out to the public, particularly as this was “peak time” for the ornamental market with businesses making the majority of their year’s income.

“This loss could have significant implications both financially and on farmers’ mental wellbeing,” she said.

Finding new ways to get their products to customers is not just a problem faced by big producers, smaller nurseries are looking for ways to keep going through the crisis now they have had to close their doors.

Chris Small, who owns Orchard Nurseries just outside York, said he had been inundated with phone calls from customers asking if he did deliveries as people were unable to come to the nursery.

“I am trying to do deliveries after I have finished my usual work and I am lucky as a one-man band whose market is the general public, that I can offer this service.”

But without the footfall Mr Small said he did notice the drop in sales, particularly as a lot of people visit a nursery without really knowing what they want to buy and being guided by what they see, along with the advice he can supply.

“When people come to a garden centre or nursery there are thousands of plants with different names and they don’t necessarily know what they want. Not being able to physically come on site means we lose those sales and also the incidental sales we get from people who see something else they fancy as they walk around.”

Mr Small said he thought it was harder for bigger growers who supplied to large retailers and found their whole market had shut down almost overnight.

He said there will be producers who had ‘plug’ plants and bedding plants ready to go to market places around April time, but would now face a difficult decision on how to proceed.

He also said the crisis could have a big impact on the Christmas market.

“It may seem a long way off but we are moving towards the time when buyers will be looking at Christmas tree crops and trying to figure out how it will work this year.”

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