On 24/01/2014 10:39, Sacha wrote:
The island's tomato production has almost ground to a halt and it used
to be its lifeblood. Thank goodness for the finance industry and I never
thought I'd hear myself say that! Anthony Le Page who employs 15 workers
on his 2ha glasshouses in the Vale is closing down. The stretch of water
between England and the islands is one of the significant causes. About
50 years ago, the tomato growing employed more than half the island's
population.


(This got lost first time I posted it, probably because I've changed
from XP pro to windows 7)

Now, come on Sacha.
It's by no means another British industry hitting the buffers, rather
the tomato industry in the UK is on the up and up, with sites like
Thanet Earth and several mega units using combined heat and power
plants, and waste heat to heat the houses; if you can call those multi
hectare structures houses; to produce all year round tomatoes, and going
by some I bought in Tesco last week #; not those stupid little things;
they had good flavour for winter tomatoes.
When you have these mega houses just down the road so to speak, and not
over some very choppy water, and with production 2 or 3 times per sq
meter than it used to be in "The good old days"it's time for Guernsey to
look for much higher value produce.
I remember in my younger day we used to get £1.00 a pound for the first
tomatoes, but that never lasted more than a couple of weeks, likewise
with the first Strawberries, and that was 50+ years ago. Today no one
would pay the modern equivalent price.
David @ the side of Swansea Bay where it is yet again raining.