A JERSEY company which markets Island tomatoes in the UK is to stop trading when the current crop comes to an end.The Jersey Produce Marketing Organisation, which was set up by growers and merchants nearly 40 years ago, says it has been forced to close after a number of farmers announced that they can no longer afford to grow tomatoes for export.Tomatoes will no longer be exported to the UK after this year. The news comes days after the JEP revealed that the value of Jersey’s tomato export industry had more than halved in the last five years – from £8.4 million in 2003 to just £4.1 million last year. The total number of tomatoes exported during the same period has dropped by 57 per cent, from 6,869 tonnes to 2,941.Growers have blamed huge increases in heating costs and the refusal of supermarkets to pay more for the tomatoes for making the industry unprofitable. William Church, director of the JPMO, said: ‘It has been a brutal time. There are some glasshouses who want to continue, but it is a question of whether it is commercially viable.’ He said that about six office staff at the JPMO would be made redundant.• Picture: William Church at the JPMO. Picture by Rob Currie (00456633)