Fruit and veg prices to triple

The number of crops grown in Britain is set to be slashed if bureaucrats give the go-ahead, experts warned last night.

That would inevitably mean rocketing prices for staple foods such as potatoes, peas, broccoli  and cauliflowers.

Bread could also be affected, with home-grown wheat liable to spiral in cost too.

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A 2.5kg bag of potatoes would rise from £1.98 to a crippling £5.94 by this time next year and a humble white loaf could cost £2.52, according to the National Farmers’ Union. Medical experts warned that the health of struggling Britons could be at risk as they may no longer be able to afford to eat a balanced diet.

Nutritionist Carina Norris said: “I am very worried that this could lead to people not buying enough fruit and vegetables to get their recommended five pieces a day.”

The rising prices would be sparked by a Brussels vote this week on a change in the way pesticides are assessed.

This could lead to many of the bug-killing chemicals used in UK farming being outlawed – which could put farmers out of work and then force up prices. Paul Temple, vice-president of the NFU, said yesterday: “I’m exceptionally nervous about this. We could lose a huge amount of production as there will be things we can no longer grow.

“When you stop producing the things that your country can actually grow, you leave yourself open to very volatile prices.”

The EU will vote on Wednesday on the plans for registering potentially dangerous pesticides.

The scheme would see the chemicals assessed on the basis of “perceived hazard” as opposed to proven scientific risk.

The NFU says an EU-wide ban would have a “devastating” impact on food production.

The organisation points to a study by Cranfield University estimating that the proposals could remove up to 85 per cent of pesticides, herbicides and fungicides currently in use.

The report warns of reduced crop yields thanks to fewer products to protect plants. Mr Temple said: “There aren’t any viable alternatives. If you lose a product and there is no alternative then you are really struggling.

“This won’t immediately spark new products because that’s not the way it works. The products we are using are safe. This is politics rather than science.”

He added: “The wonderful irony of this is that we will end up having to import fruit and vegetables from outside the EU and these could be using the very pesticides which we can’t use here.”

Miss Norris, a nutritionist at Edinburgh’s Queen Margaret University, said some people had already started spending less money on fruit and veg because of the economic crisis.

Neil Herron, campaigns director for the Metric Martyrs, also slammed the EU’s plans, saying: “This could have potentially dire consequences. In this very fragile economic climate the last thing we want to be doing is adding to the temperature.

“All fingers point to the EU. You can’t have laws being made by people who are outside your own accountable democracy.” British Retail Consortium spokesman Richard Dodd said the EU should have assessed the impact of the plans before “charging ahead” with them.

He added: “There is never a good time to be introducing new regulations which could force up food prices but we were just starting to see the end of the worst of the food price increases, so this really is particularly unfortunate timing.”

Other groups are supporting the EU’s proposals.

Emma Hockridge, policy officer at the Soil Association, said: “We are against pesticides.

“Organic farmers in this country have successfully shown that products can be grown without using such chemicals.”