EPPING FOREST: Farmers face ruin following E.coli scare

It is estimated that there are 800 million cucumbers grown in Essex and Hertfordshire.

The UK Cucumber Council believe that UK cucumber farmers have already lost £15,000 per hectare following the E.coli outbreak in Germany experts at one point believed could have been caused by contaminated cucumbers.

Sales have slumped to such an extent that suppliers are having to refuse new deliveries from farmers because their shelves are already full of unwanted stock.

Some suppliers estimate they will have to destroy up to 40 per cent of current stocks if the crisis continues and farmers, many struggling with rising fuel prices, teeter on the brink of bankruptcy.

David William runs Britannia Salads in Nursery Road, Nazeing, a processor company that supplies a range of shops and supermarkets with cucumbers.

He said: “Many of my suppliers face bankruptcy. It has got to the point where they just cannot pay their bills.

“Sales have dropped to such an extent that we have far more cucumbers coming in than we are able to get out and we will have to start putting them in skips soon.

He said the crisis added to the problems farmers face from rising utility prices and a drop in cucumber prices following competition from foreign crops.

Mr William emphasised that there no evidence on contamination in British cucumbers.

“There is no evidence that there is anything wrong with the product. It has been tainted by unfair media speculation”, he said. Cucumber farmer Franco Pullara, 43, runs the Coronation Nursery in Hoe Lane, Nazeing.

He said: “We are certainly losing out and stock will have to be destroyed next week.

““You cannot stop a cucumber from growing, it is not a machine you can turn off. I know farmers who are badly hit and are having to throw out incredible amounts.

“I think the main thing is that our cucumbers are completely safe. There is no evidence of a link between them and E.coli.”

Click here to follow the Epping Forest Guardian on Twitter