A STRATEGY FOR IMPROVED BUSINESS MANAGEMENT IN THE JERSEY INDUSTRY

The island has associate status with the E.E.C. which enables its produce to be exported without the payment of 'third country' tariffs. Table 1 shows the exports achieved in 1977 and 1981. Total values in the intervening years were much the same. However, inflation has eroded the real value of the pound sterling as much in Jersey as in the United Kingdom. The Jersey Cost of Living Index stood at 155.5 in September 1981 against 100.0 in December 1977.

Some indication of the size-structure of the Jersey industrie is given in table 2. These data include changes in purely glasshouse holdings and specialist cattle farms. As might be expected, the smallest-scale holdings are declining but there is an increase in the number of larger units. The vergee is the traditional measure of land area in the island and from 1977 to 1981 the average size per holding increased from 41.9v to 46.3v. Thus the typical area of a Jersey holding in 1981 was only about 8½ hectares.

Other factors which bear on producers' incomes include a high level of fragmentation into separate groups of fields; the presence of numerous small fields which are inconsistent with modern farming methods; and short-term tenancies, which account for nearly half the rented land (much more land is rented than owned). The structure of Jersey's glasshouse industry is less archaic but producers' incomes are subject to the same economic pressures as in the United Kingdom.

Economists could infer from this introduction that Jersey's crop producers have a low income problem. That is generally thrue. The Wye College team has listed more than a hundred recommendations for dealing with the situation in Jersey. These lie in five main areas

• improved management skills
• modified industry structure
• strengthened marketing system
• innovation
• leadership of the industry

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