Policy paper

A blueprint to grow the UK fruit and vegetable sector

Published 14 May 2024

The UK has a proud agricultural heritage, not least the edible horticulture sector, where we are fortunate to have the climate, landscape, and – most importantly – highly responsive and versatile growers, enabling the production of a wide range of high-quality and nutritious fruit and vegetables.

The sector is a vital part of the UK economy, worth £4.3 billion in 2022, with UK growers producing more than 3 million tonnes annually from over 300 different varieties of fruits and vegetables.

The broad nature of the sector sets it apart from other farming sectors, with various sub-sectors – orchards, field vegetables, soft fruits, glasshouses, vertical farms – each having unique issues when it comes to growing, harvesting, and marketing of products.

Our fresh produce sector is a key growth area. As highlighted by the Food Security Index, if we want to build our food security, we must go further in fruit, in which we only produce 17% of what we consume, and fresh vegetables at only 55%. This is significantly behind other products.

Through this blueprint, we want to boost the domestic production of fruit and vegetables, increasing horticultural output to become more self-sufficient and bolster our food security.

We want the UK to be the best place in the world to start and grow a fresh produce business.

We want traditional growers, cutting-edge glasshouses and vertical farms putting British salads and fruits on our tables 365 days of the year, producing incredible yields sustainably, and locating new agricultural development within and around urban spaces so that they become as synonymous as traditional farms within our rural landscapes.

While this plan establishes a direction for the sector to move towards, the ways we deliver these commitments must remain responsive and adaptive to the sector’s needs. Government and industry collaboration and a full suite of support mechanisms will be required to deliver these commitments.

We will therefore develop a task-driven and solution-focussed engagement programme to address specific issues such as energy, planning and investment, to help grow the edible fruit and vegetable sector. This will include Controlled Environment Horticulture (CEH) and will enable easier access to government for the sector and help government identify how we can develop a new generation of glasshouses and vertical farms on non-agricultural land.

To deliver on the output of this engagement we will champion the UK’s world-renowned horticulture industry within government, coordinating policy design, regulation and delivery across departments to support investment, growth and innovation across this vital sector. We will raise the profile of horticulture in departments such as Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Home Office, Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and all others with an interest, with the new Defra-chaired Senior Officials Food Leadership Group to consider how to include horticulture in relevant funds, policies, and support mechanisms.

1. Access to affordable, sustainable energy and water

Fruit and vegetable cultivation requires intensive use of inputs. We want to support the sector to access affordable and increasingly sustainable energy, with a secure supply of water. This will be a crucial part of supporting the sector to decarbonise. There have been great innovations in this space from utilising waste heat to ever more efficient solar uses.

Government will: 

• Assess and consider the horticulture sector’s eligibility for decarbonisation, waste heat and clean energy incentives, and future developments in energy policy, recognising the unique nature of CEH businesses compared to traditional growers who fall under the same business classification. Defra will also work with industry to strengthen the evidence base on CEH energy and trade intensity to put them in the best possible position ahead of future reviews of the British Industry Supercharger. 

• Offer accelerator workshops with businesses and Distribution Network Operators to help the sector access grid connectivity, and confirming sector interests will be represented in the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan.

• Explore how to encourage co-location of CEH industries with waste heat, waste CO2 and existing heat networks, for example via industrial energy policies and the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan. 

• Provide £75 million to support internal drainage boards (IDB), to accelerate recovery from the winter 2023 to 2024 storms and provide opportunities to modernise and upgrade assets that benefit and support resilience for farms and rural communities.

2. Cutting planning red tape

It takes too long to build a glasshouse. We want to cut those timelines, as well as the time it takes to build necessary horticultural infrastructure to meet water and energy needs. The government’s Food Strategy set out the vision for the next generation of glasshouses as a crucial tool to boost commercial horticulture sustainably. In speeding up building we should not constrain our thinking to rural areas, opening our minds instead to the possibilities and benefits of growing fresh produce in cities. 

We have recently increased the ground area limit of new agricultural buildings or extensions erected on large farms to 1,500 square metres. We have also increased the ground area limit for extensions to existing agricultural buildings on small farms to 1,250 square metres.

In addition, government will: 

• Review the outstanding planning barriers for the horticulture sector, including formally reviewing over summer the planning barriers that may be stopping CEH growers from building and expanding their glasshouses. We will reflect the importance of the controlled environment horticultural sector in the new National Development Management Policies and National Planning Policy Framework, with any changes subject to public consultation. This will make clear our support for these important rural businesses.  

• Consult on a Permitted Development Right for small scale, single on-farm wind turbines. This could help farmers across the agricultural sector to meet some of their energy needs, transition to renewable energy use, and support energy resilience.

3. Investing in success

Fresh produce is an innovative and attractive sector that has grown due to significant private investment. Continued growth of the sector and its success is critically dependent on building investor confidence, maintaining sector attractiveness to investors, and driving private investment into next generation growing models. We want to unlock greater investment in these crucial rural businesses.  

Government will:

• Develop a new Horticulture Resilience and Growth Offer, where Defra will look to double to £80 million, the amount of funding given to horticulture businesses, when compared to the EU legacy Fruit and Vegetable Aid Scheme, which will be replaced from 2026 onwards. An improved, comprehensive, and simplified offer will recognise the Producer Organisation model while at the same time bringing individual businesses within the scope for support, with up to £10 million being made available to help orchard growers access the equipment, technology and infrastructure they need to produce more great British fruit, and increased support for packhouse automation of up to £50 million.

As a result of this investment, we want to increase domestic production as fast as possible towards the much higher rates seen for other produce, dramatically increasing our food security and reducing the risk of shortages.

• Work with industry to develop the offer, with further details to be announced by the end of 2024, to:

1. Ensure all parts of the edible horticulture sector, from potatoes to raspberries, and all businesses can benefit from government funding to support growth, innovation, and environmental outcomes.   

2. Celebrate the success of the Producer Organisation Model, so that growers who collaborate can scale up benefits. We are committed to working in partnership to look at how we can incentivise and financially support cooperative ventures.   

3. Bring individual businesses into scope so that solo ventures can access support that meets the specific needs of the edible horticulture sector. Only 23% of the sector is claiming support from the legacy EU scheme through Producer Organisations.  

4. Put horticulture on an equal footing with other food producers by shaping Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and our grants programme to better meet the specific needs of the sector. We are making it simpler for edible horticulture to access a wider range of support through our core farming programme. For example, after receiving feedback regarding the Farming Investment Fund’s (FIF) suitability for horticulture, we plan to collaborate with organisations to determine the specific types of specialised production equipment that should be added to the fund to support growth and success in the sector.  

5. Empower and enable businesses to shape their future, knowing they can access financial support for our shared goals of sustainable food production, automation and innovation, and diversifying and creating new markets.

• Increase the representation of horticulture growers in productivity grant and support schemes, including the FIF and Farming Innovation Programmes and SFI, by addressing possible barriers to entry and ensuring the whole sector can access productivity support. 

• Increase the representation of CEH growers, the opportunities of the UK CEH market, and invest opportunities in relevant activities such as the Global Investment Summit.

4. Building opportunity and adding value

We want to support the sector to add further value to their fresh produce and explore new opportunities at home and abroad. Great British fruit and vegetables are well known around the world for their quality. In 2023 we resolved agrifood barriers estimated to have a potential increase in exports of £1.4 billion over 5 years, including securing new access to India for apples in July, estimated by industry to be worth up to £8.5 million over 5 years. In 2024, Kent Golding hops and Pembrokeshire Early potatoes were among 37 Geographical Indications for UK food and drink that formally gained protection in Japan.

Government will: 

• Progress the Supply Chain Review for fresh produce, publishing the responses to the consultation and drafting the forward timetable on legislating. While many responses to the consultation demonstrated good relationships within the supply chain and examples of mutually beneficial agreements, many respondents felt the contracts they’ve entered into in the last 5 years haven’t reflected their business needs, that contracts within the sector were shown to often be verbal or informal, and that their contracts were ambiguous or not considered binding. A large majority of respondents supported all agreements being covered by a written contract and following a set structure, and felt that legislation is needed, which government commits to bring forward. 

• Explore how to support long term cold storage of crops so that more UK grown produce can remain fresh, nutritious, and consumed out of season, for example in energy policies, and supporting research into optimising long term storage solutions. 

• Launch the £15million Farm Gate Food Waste Fund which will help the industry turn the dial and get more good food from farm to people. The scheme will launch on 31 May 2024.

• Deliver an export deep dive and masterclass with the horticulture sector in 2024 to identify priority market access barriers and build sector knowledge and readiness for exporting around the world. 

• Support UK Controlled Environment Horticulture businesses to explore overseas export opportunities, in order to underpin high skilled jobs and drive business growth back in the UK. 

• Continue ongoing work to tackle over 20 export barriers for UK fruit and vegetable products. 

• Continue to challenge the EU’s prohibition to trade through all levels of Trade Cooperation Agreement governance to restart UK seed potato exporting to the EU.

5. Growing skills and innovation

The UK fresh produce sector is vibrant and diverse, but it is also one of the most labour-intensive sectors in our economy, with many of its crops still harvested and packed by hand. We want to ensure the sector has the right skills and workforce to bring home the harvest each year, while developing automation and growing technology which can support a transition away from low-skilled migrant labour. 

Government will: 

• Extend the Seasonal Worker visa route for another 5 years from 2025 to 2029. The number of visas available to the horticulture sector in 2025 will be set at 43,000. Further detail of the quota levels from 2026 to 2029 will be set out later in 2024 following discussion and collaboration with the sector. 

• Turbo-charge automation in the horticulture sector, helping boost productivity and help it transition away from low-skilled migrant labour as fast as possible. Significant bespoke packhouse automation funding will be made available to support growers, increasing the existing support for agri-innovation available from within the farming innovation budget by up to £50 million. Defra FIF schemes, including the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund small grants, and Improving Farm Productivity and Adding Value large grant schemes, will support the purchase of robotic and automatic equipment. 

• Accelerate the adoption of automation technology by working with the Food and Drink Sector Council’s (FDSC) Automation Project Group, and foster greater collaboration between government, industry, and education providers through the FDSC’s Future Skills Project Group. 

• Communicate government’s commitment to supporting the horticulture sector directly to investors, giving them the confidence to invest.

• Invest an additional £15 million in the Genetic Improvement Networks (GINs) and establishing a new GIN on soft fruits as well as confirming the successful bidders for the research contracts from July 2024 to June 2029.

• Introduce secondary legislation to implement the Precision Breeding Act, making it possible to develop new products in years instead of decades and bringing them to market more easily. Commercial varieties could be grown and harvested by 2027. 

• Continue to work closely with industry and the plant breeding sector to facilitate routes to market for precision-bred varieties, including through the precision breeding industry working group and through events such as a UK Agri-Tech Centre hosted event in 2024, to enhance collaboration between genetic researchers and plant breeders.