The year 2004 will no doubt be remembered as one of the major turning points in Jersey agriculture. Not only did it see the launch of a £1 million lifestyle marketing campaign for Jersey Royal, but the entire marketing structure of the island’s primary export underwent a dramatic transformation as well. A year on, to mark the 125th anniversary of the beloved spud, a second round of campaigning is underway, while the Jersey Royal network has been remodelled once again.
Jersey Royal exports are integral to the country’s economy, accounting for some 68 per cent of agricultural turnover, which is the third biggest industry after finance and tourism. As the only British vegetable to be given the EU Protection of Designation of Origin (PDO), the speciality value of Jersey Royals is widely recognised. However, the UK marketplace has shown a gradual annual decline in new potato consumption, with further consolidation of UK retailers leading to greater competition among suppliers.
Early last year, faced with the reality of declining support from its main export market, the island’s four existing marketing desks and five of its principal growers joined forces to become Jersey Royal Potato Marketing (JRPM), with the rest of Jersey’s growers supplying the monster marketing body on a contractual basis.
The idea behind the merger was to reduce the mammoth production costs incurred by such a labour-intensive industry and eliminate the island’s internal competition and fragmentation, deemed to be contributing to the overall weakening of the brand. And, according to the PR manager for Jersey’s Economic Development Committee, Mike Tait, the benefits of the move are already apparent.
“Last year saw a return to a good performance for Jersey Royal, the previous year being quite poor in terms of both market conditions and physical conditions,” says Tait. “Now everything looks rosy in the garden. Our brand recognition is very strong. In consumer polls 95 per cent of consumers named Jersey Royal when asked about new potatoes and over 60 per cent of those asked had bought them in the last month during the season.”
Tait believes the £1.2m media campaign due to commence shortly focusing on “Beautiful Jersey and the Grower” will continue the success achieved by last year’s exposure. He is also keen to highlight the ongoing support lent by the major multiples, citing the Co-op’s in-store promotional activity and Sainsbury’s recent TV advertising shoot on the island in particular.
Sainsbury’s recently flew wonder-chef Jamie Oliver to Jersey for three days to feature Jersey Royals in the latest of its themed adverts. The two ads are due to be aired from the start of May; one will present Oliver in the island’s steepest potato field and in the other he will be shown cooking up a Royal-orientated delight.
Owing to a prolonged spell of severe frost, snow and hail last month, the bulk of the crop’s growth is behind by about two weeks. Producers customarily aim to have Jersey Royal in the British supermarkets in time for Easter. However, this year Marks & Spencer was the only store offering a limited volume for the bank holiday weekend.
“We were the only retailer selling Jersey Royal potatoes in time for Easter so people had to come to us if they wanted a traditional Easter Sunday lunch,” says Hugh Mowat, a spokesman for Marks & Spencer’s potato category. He says the store was able to secure the earliest batches owing to the strong links forged with its Jersey supplier over the past 20 years.
According to Mowat, consumers appreciate the supreme taste of Jersey Royal new potatoes, which have a distinctive kidney shape and are a good source of vitamin C. Sainsbury’s senior potato buyer John Maylam agrees that despite the emergence of other early varieties from regions across the mainland, such as Cornwall, and the higher price Jersey Royal commands, the original ‘early’ will continue to earn consumer allegiance.
“There have always been other early varieties around at the same time as Jersey. The reason for Jersey’s success story is the quality of the variety, climate and soil, which is unique to Jersey,” says Maylam. “Our sales certainly show no sign of any decline. There is a premium attached to Jersey new potatoes but the quality of the potato justifies this and our feedback is that customers are willing to pay for quality.”
Despite the delay to the start of this year’s Jersey Royal season, Maylam retains a positive outlook for the months ahead. Sainsbury’s has started with small volumes and instead of the usual gradual build up, the limited stocks are expected to continue until full supply is reached in early May. And he believes overall volumes will even be slightly higher than last year.
In addition to the recognised selling points of the brand as a whole, Mowat says Marks & Spencer prides itself on offering a further point of difference. “Our Jersey Royal potatoes are the best because we go one step further to enhance their delicious taste.” Unlike the other multiples, which leave the crops unwashed until they reach the mainland, M&S has them washed and packed on the island. Following scientific tests the retailer concluded that this method, similar to refrigeration, keeps the potatoes hydrated and extra fresh.
Observing traditional methods is fundamental for Jersey farmers, says Tait. As such, the entire crop, which can range from 36,000 tonnes to 50,000t per year, is still hand-lifted from the steep Jersey hills, known as Côtils. This requires a large influx of seasonal workers in addition to the core staff, most of whom come from Poland and Portugal.
Farmers are also conservative in their treatment of the crops, choosing to spread their fields with natural seaweed, or vraic, harvested from Jersey’s beaches, as a natural conditioner. “Chemical spraying is almost contrary to the principles behind growing in Jersey,” says Tait. “They only use 27 of the 500 sprays which are approved and they hand-select the seed from their own stocks and hand-plant it.”
Tait is nevertheless quick to highlight the necessity of complying with modern agricultural practices and the farmers’ adaptability to the ever-changing demands of the market. “They have highly technical evaluation equipment and will only spray, to avoid blight for example, when necessary, and protocols from the supermarkets are strictly adhered to.”
Jersey farmers are resilient to the threat of competition, he continues: “They are very astute businessmen. They have technology monitoring the weather and temperature conditions to minimise spraying. And they manage the seed in the light and temperature conditions so that they can actually plant the seed at an appropriate time to give a steady supply of potatoes at a very high quality. They really understand their marketing, have very strong relations with their customers and give them what they want.”
In accordance with this pledge, JRPM has invested £2m in updating its packing, grading and storage facilities at Peacock Farm in Trinity. A 35,000 sqft building will be unveiled at the end of the month, complete with a controlled atmosphere storage capacity of 350t, supplied and installed by Farm Refrigeration, as well as new grading equipment from RJ Herbert Engineering.
According to Mike Renouard of JRPM, the redevelopment was crucial to handle the increased volumes being generated by the expanded organisation. He says Herbert Engineering was appointed as the main supplier due to its history of innovative solutions, efficient project management, high quality manufacturing facility and excellent pack-house experience.
Herbert Engineering’s managing director Rod Herbert says: “It was essential to offer a solution that gave significant production improvements and timely payback.
“One of the solutions was the unique Herbert-designed automatic changing grading screens which save hours a week in labour and enable Jersey Royals to respond to market conditions quicker, as well as the obvious health and safety benefits.” A system that would have taken three men 20 minutes, now takes one man two minutes to complete.
“The new line can also route selection of crop to one tonne bags, 16kg or 25kg bags or supermarket trays in seconds, all to different weighing machines,” Herbert continues. “Maintenance and throughput have been a hot topic on the design agenda too, some other key features include quick release roller inspection tables make cleaning and maintenance much easier and electronic variable speed conveyors and inspection rollers resulting in maximum throughput of the small crop.”
In addition to the construction of the largest small-potato grading line in Europe, JRPM as also revealed plans for ongoing investment in new offices and plans to open new staff accommodation in 2006 to house the highly skilled and accomplished immigrant workforce, Tait says.
Not everyone involved in the sector shares Tait’s glowing appraisal of the status quo, however. And after just one year of unified marketing, a group of growers contracted to JRPM decided to part company with the organisation, choosing to market their products under the name of Jersey Quality Produce (JQP). Philip Le Maistre, marketing director at JQP has a differing impression of the events building up to the separation.
“Before last year all our growers were part of what was then JPMO (Jersey Potato Marketing Organisation),” he says. “In January 2004 the marketing arm of the company informed our growers that they were going to merge with the other three marketing arms to become Jersey Royal Potato Marketing and they gave the small growers, of which there were around 20, between one and three years, saying there was no long-term future for independents. The six larger growers, most of which had their own packing houses, were given three-year contracts before they would have to buy into the corporate structure or cease to be farming altogether.”
Le Maistre says that in his capacity as chairman of JPMO, his brother Peter felt a responsibility towards the smaller growers who wanted to remain independent and tried to negotiate with JRPM on their behalf.
Unfortunately JRPM would only agree to offer short-term contracts, Le Maistre claims, so in May 2004 JQP established itself as a private marketing arm, offering its services to willing growers of all sizes. Since last November 15, growers have pledged allegiance to the business, and JQP now produces around 20-25 per cent of the island’s potato exports.
“The only criteria is quality,” says Le Maistre. “We’ve got a very strict quality control procedure. There is no market for class II produce any more so you need to be able to guarantee good quality and a consistent supply base. Some of the growers are very dedicated and put in a lot of effort and that pays dividends in the end.”
While JRPM has expressed hopes of JQP growers reversing their decision to segregate, Le Maistre does not consider this a likely possibility as long as the former continues to insist the majority of its constituents give up farming. In addition, JQP has been moving to embrace additional crops since its contractual agreement with JRPM dissolved in November, while JRPM continues to focus purely on the one product.
“We are diversifying to have a broader base of crops,” says Le Maistre. “The Jersey Royal is still the core of the business and it will continue to be but the other crops will form a significant role. We are dedicated to carrying on farming on the island in whatever role that may take.”
The company has already achieved noticeable success on the wholesale market with plantations of courgettes and cauliflowers and has entered into a share-farming agreement with Fresh Growers Ltd in Nottinghamshire to produce French Chantenay carrots. This joint venture has proved beneficial not only in the possibility of sharing machinery, but Fresh Growers was also able to advise JQP in its marketing aims, having established a similar operation six years ago.
According to Le Maistre, Jersey’s sandy soils are ideally suited to the production of Chantenay and the company drilled 80 acres of the crop in time for this season. “The carrots will be lifted in early May,” he says. “It is quite a large area and specific to us, as the only exporter of Chantenay on the island.”
In addition, the company is looking to expand the area devoted to organic courgettes which it supplies to Waitrose and Tesco. “There is a slight premium on them and since we have high export charges we need to find products we can be competitive with and a number of crops may be possible. We are always trying to be ahead of the UK season,” he says. “We have a window from late May through to July where Spain is starting to get too hot and the English season hasn’t started yet.”
While he admits the competitive presence of other early potato varieties cannot be ignored, Le Maistre agrees Jersey still has a few points of difference. “We will always have the advantage of our climate, soils and variety,” he says.
And despite the uncertainty caused by this year’s adverse weather conditions, Le Maistre is confident supplies can be managed efficiently to maintain consistency.
JQP is a family-orientated organisation with three generations of the Le Maistre family working in the business, and a similar loyalty among its other growers. Le Maistre claims this aspect was one of the factors which prompted the company to try and safeguard the future of other independent growers. Furthermore, it was perhaps this sense of heritage that captured the attention of the Jersey Authorities which recently selected Peter Le Maistre as the figurehead for Jersey Royal in its upcoming media campaign.
As a representative for the Jersey Royal brand, Tait is confident it will continue to reign over other new potatoes and remains philosophical about the recent marketing upheaval. “The two organisations are different animals so it would be unwise to compare them. They are both very committed to doing what they do well. We’ve got to look after our customers and they are concentrating on what each other can offer and to spread what they do too much might not be sensible.”
By contrast, Le Maistre says JQP will be looking to expand its share of the market at every available opportunity and diversity may be the key to long-term survival.
“Farming has changed in the last couple of years as people have gone out of the industry,” he says. “It’s all going to come down to how successful we are in getting a return. If it is viable, you will always attract people. It is not going to get any easier, but if we build a broad base to our company there will be a future for us. This first year will be a learning curve and then we will move our business in whichever direction it needs to go.”
AMCOR ADDS SOPHISTICATION
Packaging for the potato industry has been transformed in the last three years, according to Jane Bicknell, technical applications manager at Amcor Flexibles.
“The industry has moved away from the traditional wicketted bag format into sophisticated Vertical Form, Fill and Seal (VFFS) packs including block bottom stand up packs and lidded punnets, mainly due to improved pack presentation, handling and production efficiencies,” says Bicknell. “The base films used for these new formats can range from mono films such as OPP, polyester and polyethylenes right through to sophisticated laminates and coextrusions.”
Amcor Flexibles has also developed the use of modified atmosphere (MAP) packaging, which has been technically and commercially proven to extend the shelf life of potatoes and greatly reduce in-store wastage, especially on varieties such as the Jersey Royal, she says. “The creation of an Amcor P-Plus Modified Atmosphere, with higher concentrations of carbon dioxide and lower concentrations of oxygen (in comparison to a standard air atmosphere), inhibits the production of green chlorophylls and therefore greatly reduces the rate of greening.
“This means that a fully printed film does not need to be utilised to block out light and a whole new area of presenting potatoes can be achieved - it gives the opportunity to the retailer to allow consumers to see what they are purchasing.”
Amcor Flexibles claims that with its collated expertise on films, printing and potato physiology to be able to provide the entire packaging requirements of the potato industry.
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