A trip down memory lane in the fresh produce industry is a rollercoaster ride of soaring highs and crushing lows - all recorded in the Journal - but, ask anyone involved in the trade past and present, and they would not have had it any other way.
Harvey Hope-Mason, who acquired the Journal as the Fruit Flower & Vegetable Trades’ Journal in 1907, wrote in the first issue published under his stewardship: “Realising that few, if any, industries in the United Kingdom are beset with a greater number of anomalies or faced with more difficult problems, it will be the object of the new proprietorship to get behind these difficulties in an endeavour to smooth out the rough places and tone down conflicting interests.”
The industry has changed a lot in many ways since then, and the Journal has evolved with it, but there were many issues facing the sector and sentiments in the trade at the time that are still relevant today.
The Journal’s first preoccupations, from when it was formed in 1895, were dominated by a distrust of imports and the challenges facing UK growers. The editorial team was critical of importing products that could be grown at home effectively, but also recognised the advantages of importing out-of-season lines to ensure that the market was supplied with the range of products that met consumer demand, in the right volumes and at a good price.
“There are two mottos worth remembering,” the editor wrote in 1908. “The first is to take greater care to ‘buy well’. The other is ‘watch the markets’.” This advice still holds true today.
The shape of the industry changed in the 19th century with the establishment of steam shipping, and the creation of 20,000 miles of private rail networks to connect ports, production areas and markets in thriving towns and cities, and this increased the range of fresh produce arriving in the country and being transported around the UK.
Busy markets in London and Liverpool had already started to handle imports from Australasia, Brazil, Canada, the Canary Islands, the Mediterranean, Portugal, Spain, the West Indies, the US and South Africa.
The development of motor vehicles was followed closely in the Journal and, by 1914, road transport was effectively competing with rail.
World War I, which broke out in 1914, initially had little impact on the sector, with the government adopting a “business as usual” attitude for the first two years. Rationing was introduced on some staple products, but the situation boosted domestic production. Consumption of home-grown fruit and vegetables rose dramatically as import routes were cut off.
The Journal marked its 21st birthday in 1916, and the editor wrote: “For the first few years it was uphill work, the trade continuing to pursue that policy of secrecy for which it has always been noted.”
The end of the hostilities in 1918 saw little government support offered to the UK agricultural sector and, once again, the domestic sector looked on as imports from overseas increased to meet consumer demand.
But this period was also characterised by a series of successes engineered by the trade. The Imperial Fruit Show was established in 1920 and quickly became the highlight of the social calendar, and this was followed by other initiatives funded by levy payments, including the industry’s first generic campaign in 1923, which used the slogan Eat More Fruit. The Journal reported that fruit consumption increased by £1 million in the first 12 months of the initiative and £2m in the second year. This was a massive achievement for the industry.
The inter-war years saw the introduction of the first airfrieghted fruit in 1919 but, overall, the structure of the UK industry changed very little in this period, with importers and growers supplying the wholesalers, who, in turn, supplied the retailers.
A letter to the editor, published in 1932, showed that the sentiments in the industry at the time are, in many respects, reflected today. It read: “Sir, - Your writer of National Federation notes asks: Do farmers know what they want? Yes, they do, and it is simply this; to grow food for the nation, to keep our own men in employment, and in doing so make an honest living, which they cannot so at present. We are not handling machines, man-made and man-handled, and therefore cannot produce regular supplies as required. We have to take what God gives us, be it large or small. When our crops are light we are dumped by the foreigner, and when the reverse, our markets are glutted. Give us our own markets and we can work out our salvation.”
World War II, from 1939 to 1945, brought on a second sharp rise in home production - much like the Great War - with the Dig for Victory campaign taking hold. Vegetable production rose by 45 per cent and UK potato supply soared by 87 per cent, but fruit production failed to match the fall in imports, and consumption was hit by the shortfall.
The Journal published all government regulations that impacted on the sector, as it had done during World War I, and not one issue was missed during either of the conflicts.
In the aftermath of the hostilities, the UK government created the Fruit and Vegetable Organisation to bring fresh produce to the consumer at the lowest possible price, but it was widely regarded as a failure by the industry.
Imports soon reached record levels, with major increases in apples, pears, citrus and grapes, as well as rises in the stonefruit and soft-fruit categories.
The changing market saw fruit consumption gain momentum, and figures from the Journal show that consumption jumped from 104lbs a head in 1938 to 149lbs in 1960, while veg consumption dropped from 127lbs to 107lbs per capita in the same period.
Total imports of fresh produce had risen to more than £237m.
Fast forward to the 1970s, and the Journal had picked up on the impact that the supermarkets would have on the sector. The editorial team highlighted the growing threat posed by the rise of the supermarkets, which were, by the early 1980s, bypassing the markets to source their own fresh produce, and making daunting gains in market share. The wholesale market and independent retail readership began to see its overall influence on the industry eroded.
The 1970s and much of the 1980s were marked by the serious problem of inflation and the depressed economy, which led to a number of high-profile bankruptcies and voluntary liquidations.
The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) was formed in 1992 to represent all aspects of the industry, headed up by Doug Henderson for 12 years, before he handed over to Nigel Jenney, who chairs the trade association to this day. Two attempts to get another generic promotional campaign off the ground in the late 1990s failed because the cash needed could not be raised from the industry.
The Fresh Produce Journal celebrated a century of weekly news in 1995 and, by this time, the structure of the industry had been transformed. The market was worth £3.4 billion, and some 6.8m tonnes of fruit and vegetables were being consumed by the UK public each year.
Ten years later, the Journal had a makeover to mark 100 years serving the trade. The first edition following the re-design recorded the 16 different guises of the Journal, as it changed from its first incarnation as the Fruit, Flower & Vegetable Trades’ Journal, to the Fruit Trades’ Journal in October 1970, becoming the Fresh Produce Journal in March 1989, before being rebranded as FPJ in 2005. Its web spin-off - freshinfo.com - was launched in 1999. The readership profile has changed to reflect the way the industry has evolved, but the relationship between the Journal and its readers has remained simple but effective.
In the last 10 years or so, the rise of category management, supplier rationalisation, spiralling costs and tightening margins have proven challenging for the industry, and UK supermarkets have dominated the market with fierce competition and price wars cranking up the pressure on the sector. The Competition Commission, which was drafted in to complete an inquiry into the fairness of the UK grocery market, appealed to suppliers to speak up about their experiences with supermarkets in confidence, and is set to report on its findings next month.
The FPC launched its Eat in Colour campaign last year, in line with the government’s 5 A DAY initiative, and the results have so far exceeded expectation, with the initiative reaching nearly 85m Brits through newspapers, radio, TV and the internet.
New markets have opened up in eastern Europe, in Poland in particular, and China has been billed as the one to watch, as the fresh produce industry continues to expand on a global level - but, with its reputation for high quality and dedication, the UK sector is holding its own.
So what is next for the fresh produce industry? Watch this space.
KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY
Justin Hope-Mason, fourth-generation chairman of Lockwood Press Ltd, on the 100-year history of his family’s involvement with the Journal.
My great-grandfather Harvey Hope-Mason acquired the, then 12-year-old, Fruit Flower and Vegetable Trades Journal on June 13, 1907, and became proprietor and editor. Harvey was born in India in 1866, subsequently spending some time in Australia before returning to England. He first worked as a journalist, with his interests gradually tending to focus on various aspects of the fruit trade, thus, by the time he came to take control of the Journal, he was well versed in its subject matter.
He remained editor for 28 years and, during this long period, made the Journal essential reading for all concerned in the fruit and vegetable business.
As part of his desire to raise the profile of the industry, Harvey was an avid supporter of associations and co-operatives of all kinds and, over the years, was to play an important role in the establishment of the Retail Fruit Trade Federation and of the National Federation of Fruit and Potato Trades. He was also greatly concerned with the setting up and running of the Cheshunt Experimental Research Station and of the Essex Commercial Fruit Show.
However, it was to be Harvey’s success as editor of the Journal that was to mark his real contribution to the gradual transformation of the industry. This can best be seen by policies that he adopted towards the vexed question of foreign imports versus domestic production, for the Journal was always sympathetic to the plight of domestic growers and took what action it could to help their cause. But this support was always balanced by the need to welcome the offerings of overseas producers when these were considered to be advantageous to the consumer. In general, the editor was critical of importing items that could just as easily have been grown at home but, in the final analysis, he appears to have been convinced that the future of the trade would be best ensured if the markets were supplied with the widest selection of fruits and vegetables, over the longest possible seasons, at the lowest practical prices. This attitude meant that imports would inevitably play a key role in the feeding of the British population, and the Journal’s policies reflected this view.
Gordon, Harvey’s only son, succeeded his father in 1939 but, due to his extended war service, did not take control of Lockwood Press, the publishing company of the Journal, until after 1945, guiding its fortunes through the difficult days of the early post-war era. These were to be particularly onerous because of the ongoing problems caused by government restrictions and, especially, by the continuing shortage of newsprint. He enjoyed the support of successive editors, first Montague Keen and then William Shapley, who used the name Bill Sandford, and who was one of the first journalists to receive the OBE for services to the fruit industry.
On his retirement in 1979, Gordon handed control of the business to his eldest son, David, who had already spent 16 years with Lockwood Press. In 1973, in conjunction with Günter Schweinsberg, publisher of the German fruit trade weekly Fruchthandel, he launched a new international monthly magazine, Eurofruit, under a sister company to Lockwood Press. This was followed by the development of a European trade conference, the biennial Eurofruit Congress, which provided a regular and popular meeting place for the international industry. During his time as managing director, David was strongly supported by editor David Shapley, son of Bill Shapley.
With an increasing need to consolidate the several UK trade representative organisations, the wholesale and retail federations, the fruit importers’ and packers’ organisation, and when merger discussions between them broke down, David, with wide industry support, formed a steering committee to consolidate the various groups. This led, in 1992, to the formation of the Fresh Produce Consortium, with him elected as its first president.
I took over on David’s retirement as managing director in 2000, and concentrated on taking the Journal online with the creation and maintenance of freshinfo.com, the industry’s leading online presence of the Journal.
In 2005, coinciding with the occasion of the Journal’s 110th birthday, the publication underwent a re-design and was re-launched under the title FPJ. In September 2006, David retired as chairman, and I took over the role. Tommy Leighton, the FPJs most successful editor, was then appointed as the first non Hope-Mason managing director in nearly 100 years.
DID WE HAVE NEWS FOR YOU...
For old times’ sake, FPJ put together highlights from this week 25 years, 50 years, 75 years and 100 years ago.
25 YEARS AGO
October 15, 1982
• A national campaign for English apples hit TV screens this week, with a “Polish up your English” theme. This was followed by a poster campaign for pears in wholesale markets on November 1.
• The Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Information Bureau forecast that sales of soft citrus in the UK were expected to take a 30 per cent cut of total orange consumption within 10 years. Señor Satsuma fronted a five-week TV campaign for Spania, with 10- and 20-second animated spots going live in London and the South, the Midlands and Yorkshire.
• The 1983 British Growers Look Ahead Conference and Exhibition gave growers the opportunity to discuss new marketing organisation Food From Britain.
• A wholesale market report showed that Covent Garden traders were “yet again” unable to report any real progress in business, and that they had “all but run out of excuses” for the “dismal” situation.
• A letter to the editor read: “Sir - Our attitude to potatoes is less than complimentary. To [a previous letter’s] examples, one could add: ‘She looked like a sack of potatoes.’ This is an awful expression which does the trade no good at all… We need to upgrade the public attitude towards, not the humble spud, but the noble potato.”
50 YEARS AGO
October 12, 1957
• Tenants of Spitalfields Market were handing their porters a week’s notice, to expire the following Friday, as the Journal went to press. This followed the “unconstitutional” methods adopted by six porters at one firm when they walked out, following the rejection of a pitching claim that dated back several years. The tenants unanimously agreed to give all their porters notice unless the men concerned returned to work by Saturday morning.
• UK fruit consumption between 1953 and 1956 was revealed as lower than any other country, except Ireland and Norway, at 89lbs a head. Fruit consumption in the US was double that in the UK.
• Nearly 4,000 people attended a potato harvesting demonstration by the Potato Marketing Board at Rowland Ward’s farm at Lilleshall, Shropshire, despite the appalling weather conditions that had threatened to call off the event. It was estimated that there were about 1,000 harvesters in operation in the UK.
75 YEARS AGO
October 15, 1932
• This week saw the curtain fall on the first public inquiry in connection with a scheme under the Agricultural Marketing Act, 1931, for the regulation and marketing of raspberries by Scottish growers. The promoters of the scheme stated that the initiative aimed to make raspberry marketing in Scotland more efficient, by pooling the crop and setting up a board to secure a stable price that would be “fair to all”. The opposition included a number of growers in Blairgowrie and Lanarkshire, and the Perthshire and Forfarshire Fruit Growers’ Association. The Journal reported that, in the course of the inquiry, some “sensational” figures showed price fluctuations ranging from “as low as £10 a tonne to as high as £57 a tonne”.
• Exports of bananas from the West Indies to the UK reached one million bunches.
• A feature instructed independent retailers on how to make the most of corner sites, and analysed whether a “display window or shop entrance on the angle” were to be preferred.
• A Norwich company advertised a range of 10 commercial glasshouses, sized 100ft x 150ft.
100 YEARS AGO
October 12, 1907
• Total apple imports in the UK reached nearly nine million bushels, with half coming from the US, three million from Canada and nearly 500,000 shipped from Australia.
• The Journal warned against the use of electric light in propagation seedlings, pointing out that the plant needs darkness to sleep in the same way as human beings. To keep them always awake, the writer concluded, meant a rapid deterioration in quality.
• The Newchurch Agricultural Society of the Isle of Wight offered 2d for every queen wasp caught in the district, and paid out for 210 dead queens which, it was estimated, meant there were two million fewer wasps in the district.
• A freak pineapple received at Covent Garden Market within a consignment of St Michael was found to bear no less than five fruits - one at the top of the stalk, and another sprouting from its base. The unusual product was sold for the Lord Mayor’s Cripple Fund, raising £5.
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