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Reuters
Reuters
Business
James Davey

Cucumber crisis: surging energy prices leave British glasshouses empty

FILE PHOTO: An empty greenhouse of cucumber grower Tony Montalbano is seen, as he did not plant in January due to the soaring cost of natural gas, at Green Acre Salads, in Roydon, Britain, March 22, 2022. REUTERS/Matthew Childs

In a small corner of south-east England, vast glasshouses stand empty, the soaring cost of energy preventing their owner from using heat to grow cucumbers for the British market.

Elsewhere in the country growers have also failed to plant peppers, aubergines and tomatoes after a surge in natural gas prices late last year was exacerbated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, making the crops economically unviable.

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