The 2022 Agricultural Exhibition will not go ahead this year because of the lingering impact of Covid-19.

Antwan Albouy, exhibition director, said that the organisers were disappointed, but the surge in Covid-19 cases last fall and winter had hindered efforts to organise the event.

Mr Albouy said: “We usually start planning in September, but as you may recall that time last year we had an outbreak of cases.

“We decided to postpone the start of planning to November, but there was still a large outbreak.

“The decision was made to cancel in December because we didn’t know – and no one knew – how long the outbreaks would last and it takes a few months to plan the Ag Show.”

He said that in recent weeks the Ag Show Ltd had received numerous calls from educators, charities and regular participants to see if the event would be able to go ahead.

Mr Albouy added: “Everybody is disappointed, but safety has to come above everything else.”

He said that he was optimistic about a return of the event in 2023 and said the committee would begin to plan in September.

A spokesman for the Ag Show Ltd expressed the committee’s gratitude to the community, sponsor Axis Capital, the Ministry of Parks and the Ministry of Education for their continued support.

The cancellation is the fourth in the 82-year history of the Agricultural Exhibition, which is usually held at the Botanical Gardens.

While the event was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic, the event was able to go ahead in 2021 in a virtual format.