British Agriculture: Heat wilts farm produce in much of Great Britain

World
Europe

01:56

Moving to Europe. Great Britain also is engulfed in a prolonged heat wave. The hot dry weather is bringing mixed results to British farmers. Let's take a closer look.

The sun has been a welcome visitor for much of Britain. But from spring barley to potatoes, the prolonged hot and dry summer weather has started to affect harvests. While some farmers' crops have flourished, others have begun to wilt and die.

ROGER HOBSON CARROT FARMER IN YORK "This carrot is supposed to be a large carrot that's as big as it looks like it's going to get. You can see the leaves dying and without rain soon this will be the end of the carrot."

He says he'll produce 30 percent less carrots than last year. Some wet weather is forecast for the end of the week, but if the rain doesn't last long enough, soon things will only get worse.

ROGER HOBSON CARROT FARMER IN YORK "I've been growing carrots here at York for 28 years and it's by far and away the worst I've known. They're not big enough to be harvestable or to be sellable at all at the moment. I think it's inevitable that the prices will go up. From the grower's point of view, we've got substantial costs and a lot less tonnes to recoup them over."

The sunshine is proving stressful for some industries. But for others, the summer sun is a gift after a punishing winter last year.

JULIAN BARNES WINEMAKER "We're really excited this year, it's become something of a dream season. We had a really bad frost last year and I think the result of that has meant that this season the vines have produced a very large crop and we are looking forward to picking probably a little bit earlier than normal with this amazing weather we've had."

British winemakers are hoping for a bumper harvest this season. But for other high-valued crops such as potatoes and onions, which normally need constant irrigation, consumers will see a noticeable jump in their prices.

Guan Xin, CGTN.