ECONOMICS OF UK ORGANIC PROTECTED CROPPING

The paper gives an overview of protected cropping in the UK. It presents examples of economic data for strawberries, tomatoes and cucumbers, the most important protected crops in the UK. The data are presented in a format as collected for the UK Organic Farm Management Handbook, but based on our generic knowledge of the industry and not collected from a larger sample of growers as done for the handbook.
Data show that organic protected cropping can be very profitable on a gross margin basis.
As with other high value vegetables, there are considerable risks and the economic returns are very sensitive to changes in price and yield.
Other major factors are labour hours and cost of labour.
In comparison with this, the protected structures, usually polytunnels or unheated glasshouses, are not such a major cost factor, especially if they can be depreciated over many years and used by other crops (e.g., winter salad crops) in the same year.
Based on these favourable economics, it is expected that capital is not a major limiting factor for the future growth of the organic protected industry in the UK. Skills and fluctuations in market demand and prices may play a much bigger role.

I International Conference on Organic Greenhouse Horticulture

U. Schmutz, P. Sumption, M. Lennartsson

strawberry, tomato, cucumber, polytunnels, gross margins, sensitivity analysis

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2011.915.4