How a leading importer views the UK import substitution debate

摘要

Kolff Plants managing director Jacob Kolff says Defra and trade bodies such as the NFU and HTA are strongly promoting more self-sufficiency from British growers, and that is a good thing, but he warns that there is no magic quick way to increase UK production."What worries me is, if you look at my customer base of hundreds of UK companies, the owners are getting older. There are hardly any younger people coming into the industry in the UK," he says."To increase the propagation department you need highly skilled people and there are not many coming out of horticulture colleges in the UK. Young people want to get rich quick. They don't want to get their fingers dirty. Nurseries need major investmentand a lot of nurseries don't make a net profit. Borrowing from banks is not easy to build glasshouses. You need land, skilled people, investment and plants to grow."