Princes, the food group that owns the only pea cannery in the UK, has yield forecasts from the British pea harvest of around 60 percent, only slightly higher than in 2025 and against more than 100 percent in 2024, when rain and cooler temperatures produce a bumper crop.
Harvesting takes about eight weeks and will end in mid-August. Growers produce around 160,000 tonnes of peas a year, using vines worth £750,000 each.
Last year’s harvest was the first in more than a decade. Vining pea growers across Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk and East Yorkshire have reported a nearly three-fold drop in the number of peas harvested and processed.
Allen Giles, general manager of Holbeach Marsh Farmers’ Cooperative in Lincolnshire, said conditions this season were comparable. “It was hard, really hard. We haven’t had rain in six weeks,” he said. “Only hindsight will tell, but in five or six years, if this weather continues, we may not have peas in this area anymore.”
The cooperative typically harvests about 10,000 tons of peas on 2,200 hectares each year, most of which are frozen. Giles said no farmer will make money from this crop this season. “From our point of view as cooperatives, no farmer will make money from peas this year, we didn’t make anything last year either. We earn by tons, we need tons per hectare for this land to be profitable. And that’s not anyone’s fault, just the weather.”
The cooperative planted peas for the first time. “We planted peas this year for the first time and they look good, they have enjoyed the hot weather,” said Giles. Lentils are also considered, along with discussions about producing hummus.
Giles said successive heatwaves have increased the spread of disease-carrying lice, and said the increase in ladybird populations has prompted the coalition to stop spraying. “It’s helping us, but there’s still about a year left. There won’t be that many ants going into winter and we’ll probably end up with a lice problem next year.”
The Met Office recorded more days of 30C on 15 July than in the whole of 1976, with UK temperatures running 1.8C above the seasonal average. A recent Environment Agency report reports 1,353 emission license limits are in effect and says prolonged dry conditions are producing early harvests and poor yields.
Peas ripen quickly, and high temperatures shorten the window processors must be frozen or not. Peas harvested in Lincolnshire are canned within six hours at Long Sutton, the Princes estate that remains the only pea canner in the UK and produces around 24 million cans and 40 billion peas a year. Drought- and disease-resistant varieties can protect crops but often take years to reach the market.
Giuseppe Mastrolia, the chief executive of Princes, said that the pressure extended to the entire product range of the club. “Climate change is a topic that exists in all different areas, in pasta, in tomatoes, things are changing,” he said. “We need to prepare and we are already making changes. Climate affects every industry.”
Princes, one of Europe’s biggest food producers, faced emergency price increases earlier this year after the war in Iran raised energy and packaging costs and led to global fertilizer shortages. “We hit hard in March and April. Things have slowed down but there is still uncertainty,” said Mastrolia. Reduced government support and higher labor costs have also affected the food industry.
Mastrolia said he agrees with Giles’s view on the availability of peas, citing the increased demand for protein-rich foods, but said the crop will reduce the availability of land. “What we’re trying to do with peas is to sell what we produce and pack them in the UK, but given the conditions this year, we won’t be able to meet the demand. Last year we bought frozen peas, which are in the UK from Scotland, so we’re trying to find a local but best place to produce fresh peas.”
Traders are already linking hot weather and lower crop yields to rising food prices, and the question of how the drought of 2026 compares to that of 1976 has become a concern of the farming sector.
