British brassica growers have had enough of watching perfectly good crops go to waste while foreign veg fills supermarket shelves — and they’re launching…
Growers name and shame retailers as surplus crops get ploughed in
British brassica growers have had enough of watching perfectly good crops go to waste while foreign veg fills supermarket shelves — and they’re launching a monthly league table to call out the worst offenders.
The Brassica Growers Association (BGA) announced on 3 July 2026 that it will rank the UK’s major supermarkets each month on how much British-grown produce they actually stock, factoring in both volume sales and market share. The rankings will feed into a new British Brassica Retailer of the Year Awards, with a separate “British Brassica Promotion” category for retailers who go the extra mile.
It’s a direct response to a bruising 2025, when an alarming amount of UK brassicas ended up either ploughed back into fields or fed to livestock because supermarkets weren’t committing to British supply across the full growing season. Defra horticulture statistics show vegetable imports into the UK rose 5.6% year-on-year — the wrong direction entirely for growers who’d been banking on stronger domestic demand.
BGA chair Peter Durose pulled no punches: “Sadly, due to retailers not buying British-grown brassica throughout the span of the growing seasons, the surplus stocks meant an alarming amount ended up being ploughed back into the fields or turned into animal feed.”
The 2026 season — costs up, temperatures up, but growers cautiously optimistic
Durose said early reports from BGA members point to a positive outlook for this year’s brassica crop, despite a double squeeze from cost inflation linked to the gulf conflict and unusually high temperatures already hitting fields in late June and early July.
“Despite the challenges of cost inflation due to the gulf conflict and the current high temperatures we’re experiencing, reports back from our growers are overwhelmingly positive for this year’s brassica growing season,” he said. “We’re doing all we can to support British farmers and not end up in the position they were in last year.”
The BGA’s message to buyers is blunt: prioritise British-grown brassicas ahead of imports whenever UK crops are available, not just during the peak flush when supply is easiest. Durose added: “We strongly believe that British retailers should be purchasing British-grown Brassicas ahead of imported produce throughout the entirety of the UK season.”
That last point matters because brassica supply isn’t a six-week window — it’s a near year-round programme covering broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts across successive plantings. A retailer who switches to Spanish or Polish broccoli the moment UK yields dip in August undoes the entire supply chain commitment.
Consumer push runs alongside the retailer rankings
The league table isn’t the only front in the campaign. From July onwards, the BGA is rolling out a shopper-facing push under the banner “Think Brassica – Think British” running through the rest of 2026.
Three angles will drive consumer messaging: health benefits of brassicas, the environmental argument for buying British (shorter supply chains, lower food miles), and straightforward recipe ideas to move volume. It’s a sensible mix — growers have learned the hard way that nagging retailers only gets you so far when consumer habit drives shelf space.
The retailer rankings themselves, though, are where the teeth are. Monthly transparency on who’s backing British and who isn’t gives the BGA leverage in contract negotiations and gives processors and packers data they can take into next year’s pricing talks. Growers who’ve been undercutting each other to keep supermarket buyers happy for years now have an industry-backed metric to push back with.
What This Means for Farmers
If you grow brassicas — or know someone who does — this campaign is worth taking seriously. Public league tables are an uncomfortable tool, and the supermarkets know it. When a buyer’s shelf-plan gets named in a trade press table, it tends to focus minds in head office in a way that a quiet word from a supplier rep doesn’t.
Practically, growers should expect mixed signals at first. Retailers won’t rewrite supply chains overnight, and the BGA’s own messaging — “throughout the entirety of the UK season” — is essentially asking buyers to underwrite shoulder-period production, which is where growing costs and weather risk are highest. That’s a fair ask, but it comes with a price, and growers will need to be ready to back it up with their own data on the cost of gaps versus the cost of guaranteed offtake.
The 5.6% import rise is the figure to watch. If that trend continues through 2026, the league table becomes harder to spin. If it reverses, the BGA can claim credit and the campaign earns longevity. Either way, growers feeding data to the BGA should make sure their volumes and contract terms are accurately represented — a league table is only as good as what goes into it.
For non-brassica growers, the bigger takeaway is structural. Horticulture trade bodies are increasingly willing to go public on retailer behaviour, and the template the BGA is setting here — monthly transparency, ranked league tables, annual awards — will be watched closely by soft fruit, top fruit and salad growers who’ve had their own import-versus-British gripes for years.
What to Do Next
For brassica growers: make sure the BGA has your 2025 and 2026 production data, contract volumes and any instances where crops were written off or downgraded because buyers switched to imports. That evidence base is what the league tables will stand on.
For processors, packers and marketing groups: brief your retail accounts now that monthly rankings are live. Get ahead of the story by confirming your British supply position in writing before the first table drops. There’s no upside being the retailer that has to explain a low ranking in August.
For farming press and trade bodies across horticulture: watch the methodology BGA publishes. If the metric holds up — volume sales, market share, full-season coverage — expect pressure to replicate it in soft fruit, apples and pears, and protected edibles where similar import-versus-British tensions exist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why have British brassica growers launched a supermarket league table?
After 2025 saw UK brassica crops ploughed back into fields or fed to livestock while imports rose 5.6% year-on-year, the Brassica Growers Association is naming and shaming retailers who fail to back British produce across the full UK growing season.
How will the supermarket league table work?
The BGA will publish monthly rankings based on volume sales and market share of British-grown brassicas, culminating in a British Brassica Retailer of the Year Awards with a dedicated British Brassica Promotion category.
Which crops does the campaign cover?
Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale and Brussels sprouts — the main UK brassica categories grown commercially.
What’s the consumer side of the campaign?
A shopper-facing push running from July through the end of 2026 under the banner ‘Think Brassica – Think British’, covering health benefits, lower food miles and recipe inspiration.
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Source: FarmingUK
