Gone are the days of salads in Europe.. the cost has become unbearable

The Tony Montalbano family has been growing vegetables in southeast England for decades, uninterrupted by recessions, economic shocks or bouts of high inflation. But this year, the rising cost of heating his greenhouses as a result of the escalating energy crisis caused by the Russo-Ukrainian war forced him to consider giving up his regular cucumber crop.
“The prices are out of control, they are ridiculously high,” Montalbano, 40, said of his energy bills, explaining that this year’s production on his Essex County farm will be half normal due to the decisions he made to cut costs. Gas prices are just up and that’s something I haven’t prepared myself for.”
Across Europe, farmers and food companies are reducing production as they struggle to cope with rising energy costs. “His energy bill is about five times what it was at this time last year,” Montalbano said. The prospect of seasonal food shortages sparked warnings from the agricultural sector and frantic calls for government support, at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin cut gas flows in response to Western sanctions.
Crops that require intense heating in colder climates, such as cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce, are most directly affected. But the energy crisis is affecting the broader European food supply chain, as bakers, dairy farmers and other producers, including growers of sugar beets and olives, struggle to pay the bills at a time when costs are rising rapidly.
“The resounding effects of higher bills have been more severe than expected,” Pekka Pessonen, Secretary General of the Cuba Kojica Confederation that represents European Union farmers, said this week, as prices of inputs such as fertilizer and fodder have soared, while rising costs of cooling, heating and transportation have crippled farmers. about agriculture.
The European Union is discussing plans to cap the price of energy for companies and households, but it is also imposing cuts in their use, which could hurt farmers. The UK unveiled a plan that would support businesses, but only for six months.
However, it is already too late for many. “I think 75 to 80 per cent of UK salad growers will not plant next year (…) because it makes no sense in economic terms,” said Jimmy Russo, co-owner of Valley Grown Salad UK. The sector of power has been abandoned.”
Hot weather this summer has exacerbated the problem, leaving Rousseau unable to grow most of his usual crop. But the price of natural gas last year that cost 50 pence a therm now costs him 3.75 pounds, and he was given a price of five pounds a therm in the winter. “You can’t sell a cucumber for £2.50,” he said.
In the Netherlands, which accounts for about a fifth of the world’s tomato exports, it is dark for many greenhouses. “Companies that normally use lighting to help grow tomatoes are not likely to do so next winter because of higher electricity prices,” said Alexander Forsma, energy specialist at Glastowenbau Nederland.
Alfred Pedersen & Son, the largest tomato supplier in Sweden and Denmark, which operates 350,000 square meters of greenhouses, has announced that it will also turn off the lights this winter. The company supplies supermarkets with 20,000 tons of tomatoes annually, about a quarter of which are produced in winter.
Turpin Roll, the company’s chief operating officer, stated that energy costs have increased tenfold compared to last year, and “a significant amount of tomatoes will be lost from the supply chain in northern Europe,” adding that “farmers in warmer climates, such as Spain and Morocco, may not They can bridge the gap.”
Some French sugar beet growers have been forced to advance their harvest due to fears of a possible winter gas shortage. Terios, France’s largest sugar producer, said it would act early to start the energy-intensive process of turning beets into sugar.
“There were concerns among industry groups that if there was a shortage of gas, it could be cut off,” said Timothy Mason, an economist at the French Beet Producers Association.
While higher energy prices directly affect the use of heated greenhouses in colder climates, farmers in warmer climates are hurt by higher input costs and harsh weather.
In Italy, where farmers were already suffering from a drought during the summer, about a third of the country’s farmers are working at a loss, according to research by the Italian agricultural federation Coldiretti by data analytics firm Centro Studi Divolga.
Filippo de Micules Angelini, a member of Coldiretti, who grows grains and vegetables, including olives, on his farm in southern Puglia, said his monthly energy bill had nearly tripled compared to last year, while fertilizer prices had quadrupled. “We will certainly press the olives, but we are very afraid of the costs,” he added.
Some farmers chose to sell the electricity they agreed to buy at a fixed price, rather than use it for agriculture. One said, “I know farmers with a two-year fixed-price contract (…) who concluded that it made no sense to use it instead of selling it, so they sold it to someone else. It is a business decision.”
Back in south-east England, Montalbano said that some of his fellow farmers who were nearing retirement age opted to withdraw, while those who owned the land were benefiting. But as a younger tenant, he noted, he had few options other than looking at less energy-intensive crops, such as peppers.
“If I don’t grow crops, how can I pay my bills? I keep working by using my savings, which means I’m going backwards. So what do I do?”

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