Are droughts and crop shortages the new normal?

I'll give a bit of context.

So, I mean, everybody knows the situation, really, especially in our industry.

But just a few brutal facts that I've come across this week.

England and Wales are on course to record their driest July in 190 years, which is a bit nuts.

I mean, yeah, it feels like the media are almost running out of superlatives in a way to kind of explain the kind of exceptional circumstances of this summer.

But yeah, southern England seeing its driest month ever recorded.

Those are records that went back to 1836.

Most counties in England have had effectively no rainfall.

I think it's technically it's less than a millimetre, but pretty much nothing during this entire month.

And yeah, the damage that we're seeing on crops is accumulating.

So it's kind of...

Yeah, not a one hit wonder.

And obviously Europe is also seeing extreme heat.

So there's the overseas picture as well, which is a really important part of the context.

And it's definitely not just about the domestic crop.

So I thought we'd start with our newest recruit, Julia.

Welcome again to the podcast.

Great to have you here.

You've been doing quite a lot of the news reporting and hopefully our listeners will have been reading your stories.

But could you just give us a bit of a summary? You know, what are you hearing? A lot of the nationals are covering it as well, but I feel like we've got a better inside track.

So what have you kind of been reporting on and what's been your kind of main takeaway? What's happening out there?

Yeah, so thanks for the intro.

In terms of kind of the impacts on crops, there's been a range of crops that have been impacted in different ways by the combination of heat waves, but also obviously the drought.

I guess in particular, brassicas, you've got the British Growers Association describing it as critical.

So that's kind of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage yields.