Wet weather in England causes the second-worst harvest on record

After heavy rains last winter, England’s second-worst harvest in history has been recorded. There are growing concerns for next year after the production of key crops such as wheat and oats was affected. The UK’s rapidly growing wine industry has been hit particularly hard by the cold and damp weather that lasted from last fall through to this spring and early Summer. Producers say the harvests have fallen between 75% and 30%, depending on where they are located.

According to the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit’s (ECIU) analysis of the most recent government data, England’s wheat harvest is expected to be 10m tons, or 21% lower than in 2023.

The Department for Environment Foodand Rural Affairs released data on Thursday showing that the harvest of winter oilseed rape was 32% lower than last year. The ECIU estimates farmers could lose £600m in five key crops – wheat, winter and Spring barley, oats, and oilseed rape – where production is down 15%.

Tom Lancaster, a land-food and farming analyst with the ECIU said that climate change was to blame for this year’s poor harvest. Imports have helped to cushion the blow for shoppers, but British farmers are still suffering from the second-worst harvest in history. Climate change is clearly the greatest threat to UK food safety. These impacts will only get worse unless we reduce our greenhouse gases emissions.

He said that the record rainfall in September had a negative impact on the start of the new growing season, causing farmers in certain parts of the country to delay planting and lose out on the winter harvest.

Colin Chappell is an arable farmer from Lincolnshire. He said: “We’re on the edge of a knife.” We had two inches of rainfall in just 36 hours last week, and we are not too bad off. Some southern England farms have suffered crop losses for the second consecutive year. This year, many will rely on spring wheat again. Spring wheat only produces half as much winter wheat.

“We are approaching a point where planting in the autumn is no longer viable due to flooding, and planting in spring is dangerous because of drought.”

Lancaster called on the UK government to use the budget for this month to fund more sustainable farming, which would help the UK to become more resilient to the extreme weather conditions it is currently experiencing. He said that the alternative was to let the climate impact effects worsen over the next few years.

As the British wine crop could shrink from the cork-popping bumper harvest of last year to a lighter tipple, the cold and wet summer is causing problems with mould, diseases, and fewer grapes.

The Guardian reported that several independent growers said it was a “challenging” season, with vineyards particularly hard-hit in the south and north of England as well as parts of Wales. Some have suggested that vines were depleted from last year’s heavy production, and others blamed the cold and rain.

Duncan Schwab, head winemaker of Sandridge Barton in South Devon, which is 16 hectares (40 acre) large, has predicted that volumes will be 70% lower than last year. Many growers in south-west England had similar problems, he said. He said that it was a case of “hunting the grape” out there.

Plumpton wine estate in Sussex reported that it would only be picking half of the harvest last year due to “disease pressure caused by constant rain”.

Heavy rains in April or May, coupled with a mild winter that allowed for disease to flourish in vineyards, made it difficult to treat the plants. The boggy conditions also limited the use of heavy machinery. Schwab stated that the early summer rains “caused havoc” with flowering.

Schwab stated that despite the problems, wine prices would not rise, as many winemakers would have stock left over from the record harvest last year, which would help smooth out any fluctuations in supply.