Scotland’s chief medical officer has criticised the price of soft fruit grown in Fife as unaffordable for local people and called on the food industry to help the Government tackle the nation’s diet and obesity crisis.
Dr Catherine Calderwood told a food and drink conference in Glasgow that fruit growers and other premium producers need to play their part in improving the national diet by paying more attention to supplying the home market rather than focusing on
exports.
She recounted a family visit to Fife where she had passed fields of strawberries, raspberries and other soft fruit then added: “But if you go into the local Spar in Pittenweem there aren’t any rasps for sale.
“The reason they don’t stock rasps in Pittenweem corner shop is that they are too expensive for the people who shop there to buy, so it would be a foolish thing for any shopkeeper to store them.
“Your beautiful Scotland’s larder picture contains images of lovely plump raspberries from Fife which the local people can’t afford to eat.
“Really? Is that the best we can do for our country? Why would you not look after the population you’re providing food and drink to at home as much as exporting it?”
However, industry leaders and Fife farmers say Dr Calderwood could have bought raspberries from a number of local farm shops at prices which match those in supermarkets, and warned that labour costs meant soft fruit prices were set to rise next year.
Tim Stockwell, who grows raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and blackberries at Barnsmuir Farm near Crail, said farmers were opening more and more outlets to cater for the local market and passing trade.
“We opened a small shop a few years ago so that local people could get fruit straight from the field,” he said.
“We make a point of not overpricing, and find that people make return visits.”
Growers at the conference pointed out that farmers couldn’t afford to subsidise the produce as they would be out of business the following year, and while Dr Calderwood said she wasn’t advocating anything that did not help the Scottish economy, she added: “How did the bananas that were in the shop get there, because they didn’t come from Fife?
“How are we able to provide food like that that has travelled great distances at a cost that is affordable?”
NFU Scotland’s soft fruit spokesman, James Porter of Angus Growers, pointed out that bananas were quicker to pick and the labour force that picked them was unlikely to be paid the national living wage.
“The price of soft fruit has not risen in 25 years so I don’t know what more we can do,” he said.
“Nearly all the fruit that is produced in the UK is sold in the UK.
“What is needed is a huge education job to get people to eat more soft fruit and vegetables, and the farmers’ union needs to be involved in a closer conversation with the NHS.”
nnicolson@thecourier.co.uk
