Why polytunnels are used

The British soft fruit industry, one of the few agricultural success stories of the last ten years, faces a crisis as moves are being made to prevent the use of the polytunnel.

The British soft fruit industry, a capital and labor intensive industry, comprised of family owned and run farms, has become an important and successful rural business able to meet the challenges of a very demanding marketplace. Polytunnels are essential to this. Without them the quality and yields for commercial production could not be achieved and supermarkets would buy imported fruit over British-grown.

Polytunnels have enabled the UK soft fruit business to become recognised as one of the most innovative in the world, attracting younger horticulturists with modern skills. They could, and probably would, transfer abroad in the event that UK farms were prevented from meeting consumer demand. This means that Britain’s young fruit farmers would be forced to aid in the production of competing imports by investing in EU farms and supplying the UK supermarkets from there rather than farming at home. If the industry was unable to use the essential crop protection polytunnels provide, it would undoubtedly revert to the situation of the mid-nineties where imported fruit would once again dominate our supermarket shelves. The difference now is that the volumes would be at far greater levels than experienced before due to the demand that the UK growers have created for high quality berries. The ultimate result would be the end of a successful British soft fruit industry and yet another agricultural failure.

Source: British Summer Fruits