The latest veg country of origin

[Lowland1]

There is quite a lot of supermarket garlic that is labelled as product of China. When I worked in a commercial kitchen most of the fish we used was labelled as produce of China, even cod caught in the North Atlantic.
China, for some time now, has been securing supplies of many primary food products in many different countries.

China produces a lot of garlic. I read an article where a lot of it was done on Prison farms or with forced labour. I think the first question on our EUREP GAP audit is. Do you use forced or slave labour? I’m not sure if anyone ever writes yes.

 

[Lowland1]

What about cauliflower?

Luckily i don’t grow any but it does think it’s better than the rest.

 

[Lowland1]

Hmm, hand picked veg. 50% of the money that we get for these broad beans is spent on the labour to pick them.
I wonder what the percentage is in other parts of the world?
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For us labour is 10%-12% but that’s of the farmgate price. By the time it’s on the shelves it might only be 1%.

 

[Lowland1]

I don't want to start a row about your business model, employing poor people - who if you didn't employ them might well be inbound here on a rubber boat already for all we know- however....
Passenger planes - indeed any commercial flights- afaik are costed principally by weight. KGs- indeed, notice attempts to find ways to make 'the more amply proportioned' pay more.
Freight is cheaper cos is doesn't need warm pressured up air, a reclining seat, and a cardboard meal, but....
if your produce wasn't on the pane, it'd be less likely to fly.

In fact, to satisfy curiosity.... can you tell us the cost?

Kenyans aren’t coming to the UK on boats they’re flying in to take jobs legally. A farmer in Worcestershire has twenty picking broccoli this year. The nurse who treated my wife is in London at a hospital. Freight prices are around £2 a kilo. At least twice what i get for anything at the farmgate.
My business model isn’t exploitation it’s just life in the third world.

 

[CPF]

At Sandfields one of the biggest veg growers in the uk .
Use to plant hundreds of ha’s of them.Had to stop growing sugarsnap peas because of cheap imports coming into the uk .

 

[DaveGrohl]

China produces a lot of garlic. I read an article where a lot of it was done on Prison farms or with forced labour. I think the first question on our EUREP GAP audit is. Do you use forced or slave labour? I’m not sure if anyone ever writes yes.

Be like "do you use urea on 2nd of April?"

 

[Devil's advocate]

All veg from third world countries is harvested by people poorer than you who get paid a lot less than you. That’s how it works i’ve got 400 people on a 1000 acres. Today i’d make as good a living growing wheat and potatoes as export veg. Unfortunately i’d have to lay off 399 people who would have no jobs and no money and wouldn’t be able to buy the products from my farm. It isn’t simple. If you want to grow Mange-Tout the supermarkets will take English before foreign. As for DNBP and Metasystox on it i doubt it all veg for UK from anywhere is subject to UK regulations re crop production products and residue levels. We are at 50% testing on all our beans. As for UKs carbon footprint i have no idea but all our veg travels on passenger planes which would probably fly anyway.

Yes some Chinese apples were binned a few years ago for Dursban residues.

Legal on apples here at the time but 21 days harvest interval.

The Chinese were using 14 day harvest interval so got caught out.

It does show that imported produce is residue tested.

Chinese carrots were on the market earlier in the season too.

 

[Flatland guy]

Yes some Chinese apples were binned a few years ago for Dursban residues.

Legal on apples here at the time but 21 days harvest interval.

The Chinese were using 14 day harvest interval so got caught out.

It does show that imported produce is residue tested.

Chinese carrots were on the market earlier in the season too.

I understand the different harvest intervals, however for harvesting in China evrrrything is/ was legal. What happens after harvest whether it is kept separate is what matters for intended destination.
For most UK growers we adhere to UK rules and regs, we would only do different if the importing countries were using stricter rules than our own and you were certain where that product is going. Or was it the importer got caught out?

 

[Ffermer Bach]

I know we import fruit and veg from some far off countries, but this was a new one on me (along with Indian baby corn).

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harvested by the Uyghurs?

 

[Kidds]

Hmm, hand picked veg. 50% of the money that we get for these broad beans is spent on the labour to pick them.
I wonder what the percentage is in other parts of the world?

We grew a lovely crop of French beans for packers one year, I think about 200% of what we got for them went on harvesting.

 

[Lowland1]

I understand the different harvest intervals, however for harvesting in China evrrrything is/ was legal. What happens after harvest whether it is kept separate is what matters for intended destination.
For most UK growers we adhere to UK rules and regs, we would only do different if the importing countries were using stricter rules than our own and you were certain where that product is going. Or was it the importer got caught out?

Legally nothing can be used on a crop for sale in the UK that cannot legally be applied on the crop in the UK also in Kenya nothing can be used on a crop grown in Kenya that doesn’t have registration for that crop. Our produce arriving in UK is regularly tested for MRLs any exceedence with lead to the produce being destroyed at the importers expense. We would lose our business if we had a MRL exceedence.

 

[Spudmaster]

Then some number cruncher somewhere will declare the veg as carbon neutral because the plane was flying anyway.

Exactly this. I remember having exactly this conversation with the Head of Agriculture for a major UK retailer who justified air-freighted produce on exactly this basis.
Note that this conversation was held around 2.5 years ago when the majority of passenger flights had been scrapped due to Covid. They went very quiet when I flagge£ that I could still buy East African veg when there were no passenger flights running….

 

[Spudmaster]

Exactly this. I remember having this conversation with the Head of Agriculture for a major UK retailer who justified air-freighted produce on this passenger flight basis.
Note that this conversation was held around 2.5 years ago when the majority of passenger flights had been scrapped due to Covid. They went very quiet when I flagge£ that I could still buy East African veg when there were no passenger flights running….

 

[Swarfmonkey]

harvested by the Uyghurs?

Wouldn't surprise me. There's a lot of forced labour in China.

 

[Daddy Pig]

Then some number cruncher somewhere will declare the veg as carbon neutral because the plane was flying anyway

Then some number cruncher somewhere will declare the veg as carbon neutral because the plane was flying anyway.

Or the other way round, Tui will claim their holidays are carbon neutral as the plane is mainly there to fly veg around the world.

 

[Lowland1]

Exactly this. I remember having exactly this conversation with the Head of Agriculture for a major UK retailer who justified air-freighted produce on exactly this basis.
Note that this conversation was held around 2.5 years ago when the majority of passenger flights had been scrapped due to Covid. They went very quiet when I flagge£ that I could still buy East African veg when there were no passenger flights running….

Passenger planes never actually stopped flying during Covid they did stop carrying passengers for a while though. Luckily for hundreds of thousands of people throughout Africa they did otherwise they'd have been out of work with nothing to live on. There were no furlough payments here. Our freight prices doubled after Covid as the airlines tried to make their money back.

 

[Lowland1]

At Sandfields one of the biggest veg growers in the uk .
Use to plant hundreds of ha’s of them.Had to stop growing sugarsnap peas because of cheap imports coming into the uk .

Didn't see this. Are you sure it was sugar snaps? Sugar snaps don't grow well in UK and so will have a very short window. I know they grow or grew lots of green peas. UK production does not get replaced by imports in season.

 

[Bogweevil]

Didn't see this. Are you sure it was sugar snaps? Sugar snaps don't grow well in UK and so will have a very short window. I know they grow or grew lots of green peas.

Sandfields web page says they do. https://www.gs-fresh.com/sandfields-farms

Sugar snaps grow very well in UK and so do flat podded mange tout both with a similar harvesting season to vining peas

 

[Lowland1]

Sandfields web page says they do. https://www.gs-fresh.com/sandfields-farms

Sugar snaps grow very well in UK and so do flat podded mange tout both with a similar harvesting season to vining peas

They don't like rain. That's the biggest problem any rain you get black spot which makes them unsaleable. Even in Africa they need to be covered to stop this.

 

[CPF]

Didn't see this. Are you sure it was sugar snaps? Sugar snaps don't grow well in UK and so will have a very short window. I know they grow or grew lots of green peas. UK production does not get replaced by imports in season.

I have planted ha’s of them ,we had no problem growing them, just stop growing them.