But this year, the rising cost of heating his greenhouses as a result of the escalating energy crisis unleashed by Russia’s war in Ukraine has forced him to consider giving up growing his usual crop of cucumbers. “The pricing is out of control, it’s ridiculously high,” Montalbano, 40, said of his energy bills. This year’s production from his Essex County farm would be half its normal size because of his moves to cut costs, he added. “The gas just went up and that’s something I wasn’t prepared for.” Across Europe, farmers and food businesses are cutting production as they struggle to cope with rising energy costs. Montalbano said his energy bill was about five times what it was last year. The prospect of seasonal food shortages has prompted industry warnings and frantic calls for government support, as Russian President Vladimir Putin has cut gas flows in response to Western sanctions. Crops that require intensive heating in colder climates, such as cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce, are directly affected. But the energy crisis is affecting the European food supply chain more widely, with bakers, dairy farmers and other producers, including sugar beet and olives, also struggling to pay the bills as costs rise far faster than the prices they can secure from wholesalers. Pekka Pesonen, secretary general of Copa-Cogeca, which represents EU farmers, said this week that the negative effects of the high bills were more severe than expected. Prices of inputs such as fertilizers and animal feed had soared, while rising costs of cooling, heating and transport had deterred farmers from planting. The EU is debating plans to cap the price of energy for companies and households, but also impose reductions in usage, which could hurt farmers. The UK has unveiled a plan to support businesses, but only for six months. Tony Montalbano: “If I Don’t Grow Up, How Will I Pay My Bills?” © Grainne Quinlan/FT But it is already too late for many. Jimmy Russo, co-owner of UK-based Valley Grown Salads, said: “I suspect 75-80 per cent of salad growers in the UK will not plant next year. . . because it makes no economic sense. It’s fair to say that the salad sector has been abandoned.” Hot weather this summer has exacerbated the problem, leaving Russo unable to grow most of his normal crop. But the gas that cost him last year p50 a heat now costs £3.75 and has been priced at £5 a heat for the winter. “You can’t sell a cucumber for £2.50,” he said. In the Netherlands, which accounts for almost a fifth of the world’s tomato exports, many greenhouses are going dark. Companies that normally use lighting to help grow tomatoes “probably won’t do it next winter because of the high price of electricity,” said Alexander Formsma, energy expert at Glastuinbouw Nederland. Alfred Pedersen & Son, the biggest tomato supplier in Sweden and Denmark, which operates 350,000 square meters of greenhouses, said it would shut down this winter as well. It supplies supermarkets with 20,000 tonnes of tomatoes per year, of which around a quarter is produced in winter. Energy costs have increased tenfold compared to last year, said Torben Roll, its chief operating officer. “There will be a huge amount of tomatoes missing” from the northern European supply chain, he said, adding that growers in warmer climates such as Spain and Morocco may not be able to fill the gap. Some French sugar beet producers were forced to postpone their harvest due to fears of a possible gas shortage in the winter. Tereos, France’s biggest sugar producer, said it would move early to begin the energy-intensive process of turning beets into sugar. “There were concerns among industry groups that if there were gas shortages, they could be cut off,” said Timothé Masson, an economist at the French beet growers’ union. While rising energy prices more directly affect the use of heated greenhouses in colder climates, farmers in warmer climates are still hit by higher input costs and extreme weather events. In Italy, where growers were already facing drought in the summer, about a third of the country’s farmers are operating at a loss, according to research for the Italian farming association Coldiretti by data analysis firm Centro Studi Divulga. Filippo De Miccolis Angelini, a member of Coldiretti who grows cereals and vegetables including olives on his farm in the southern region of Puglia, said his monthly energy bill had almost tripled compared to last year, while fertilizer prices were four times higher . “We will step on the olives for sure, but we are very afraid of the cost,” he said. Some farmers also choose to sell the electricity they agreed to buy at a fixed price, rather than use it for farming. “I know farmers who have a fixed price contract for two years. . . and figured that it doesn’t make sense to use it instead of selling it, trading it to someone else. It’s a business decision,” said one. Back in southeast England, Montalbano said some fellow growers closer to retirement age were retiring, while those with land were also cashing out. But as a younger tenant, he said he had little choice but to look to less energy-intensive crops, such as peppers. “If I don’t grow up, how will I pay my bills?” he said. “I keep going from my savings, that is, I go backwards. So where do I go?’
