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Farming in Jersey took a £4m hit during the pandemic which was compounded by plummeting Royals sales - but the industry says its many calls for help from Government fell on deaf ears.
The Jersey Farmers Union says it asked several times for financial support to help cover isolating staff and lost revenue, but did not receive any support.
They shared their covid experience in a submission to the Economic and International Affairs Panel, a group of politicians carrying out a review into the Government’s pandemic response, and the support it offered to businesses.
“Agriculture was one of the very few industries that received absolutely no support as a result of the pandemic. This is on the back of already diminishing returns and added stealth taxes that have been introduced over recent years," the JFU explained.
“The industry received no Government support, despite numerous requests for aid related to isolating staff and loss in revenue.
“Staff who applied for aid as a result of not being able to work while isolating were also refused funding and so individual growers had to financially support them.”
Farming was deemed an essential industry during the first lockdown and an extra 350 workers were needed for the harvesting and packing of potatoes and the growing and harvesting of summer vegetables.
Pictured: Jersey Farmers Union President Peter Le Maistre.
The JFU added: “The industry was aware that bringing in 350+ staff to the island brought the risk of not only introducing covid-19 to existing staff but also the risk of spreading the disease in the island.
“The industry went to great lengths to ensure that any new staff were well isolated so that the risk of infecting existing staff was minimised.
“Most growers kept incoming staff in accommodation that was separate from those already there, and in the case of the Jersey Royal Company, they liaised with the Government Contract Tracing Team to isolate all incoming staff in selected Jersey hotels until deemed safe for the staff to integrate with other JRC staff in JRC accommodation.
“This significant additional cost was borne by JRC. JRC were also asked by Contract Tracing to keep a block of accommodation separate for isolating staff in case of an outbreak.”
Additional measures included reducing the number of people in minibuses, physical distancing of teams in fields, delivering food directly to staff accommodation, and buying extra PPE.
The pandemic also had a profound impact on sales of Jersey Royals. The JFU attributes this to:
shoppers being reluctant to queue to do their shopping resulting in fewer shopping trips;
people shopping for basics just as Jersey Royals were coming into season, so they were not featuring on shopping lists;
Jersey Royals often being an impulse buy and shoppers were not impulse buying;
people avoiding purchasing loose products, leading loose Jersey Royal sales to fall sharply;
and, with fewer shopping trips, larger pack weights were preferred, with shoppers favouring maincrop potatoes in 2.5kg to 5kg pack weights rather than 500g to 1kg packs that Jersey Royals are sold in.
“Overall exports and local sales therefore suffered dramatically," concluded the JFU. It added, however, that sales recovered this year as normal shopping behaviour started to return.
Estimating the financial impact of the pandemic as £4m to the local industry, the JFU added: “The growers who grow all or part of their crops for the local market were particularly impacted by the first lockdown and the closure of many hotels and restaurants.
“It is difficult to understand why local wholesalers were allowed to claim for financial assistance when the growers were not.
“It was the grower who had to dump produce, and who took the largest hit.”
Pictured: Sales of Jersey Royals plummeted in 2020 but have recovered this year.
It is understood that some farmers did apply for the co-funded payroll scheme but were told that the sector was excluded.
Giving more details, JFU President Peter Le Maistre said: "When it came to support, as an industry we accepted the fact that we were are essential and we were able to continue to trade.
"However there were businesses, particularly supplying the local market, who were particularly badly hit and should we ever find ourselves in the same position again, we would certainly be demanding support.
"Otherwise we would be better off closing down like other industries."
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