Faced with spiralling energy costs and without access to Combined Heat and Power (CHP) resources at its Yorkshire nurseries, tomato producer and newly-crowned Salad Grower of the Year John Baarda began searching for a solution that could achieve the company’s aim of being a low-cost producer whilst delivering sustainable returns for re-investment. “It had been very frustrating, as there was insufficient gas infrastructure to the west of Hull to get CHP, so we started looking for the next step forward from CHP,” says managing director David Baarda.
Gas costs had risen from 32p a therm to 66p a therm - and as high as £1 a therm on the spot market - a far cry from the fixed-price 10-15p a therm that growers were able to negotiate not too long ago. Some producers have returned to oil as a more efficient resource at current cost levels, but after researching a number of potential projects, Baarda plumped for a partnership with Terra Nitrogen (UK), the UK’s leading producer of Nitrogen products.
Terra Nitrogen’s Billingham site manufactures ammonia for processing into fertilisers and nitric acid. As a result of the partnership, unlimited quantities of CO2 are available to John Baarda.
CHP is based upon supplying fuel usually in the form of gas to a piston or turbine engine that in turn generates electricity, producing as a by-product both heat and CO2, but it is impossible to produce any of the three utilities individually, leading inevitably to wasted energy. The Billingham concept allows each to be produced independent of the other, minimising waste and providing significant energy economies.
“Heat is supplied after it has been used for heating properties in other parts of the ammonia/nitric acid process,” explains Baarda. “Fifty per cent of the CO2 produced at Terra as part of the ammonia process is currently used in the food manufacturing industry and the surplus is now directed to the Baarda site, so one of the major mutual benefits of the partnership is the environment-friendliness of utilising the CO2 product in a tomato glasshouse and therefore reducing CO2 emissions. As Terra is one of the largest users of electricity in the UK its purchasing power enables Baarda to share in the benefit of very competitive rates.
“For Terra, the fact that we are working together to reduce emissions, supporting British industry and have built the most advanced and sophisticated glasshouse site in the world is great PR,” he adds. The column inches and camera film used to tell the north east about the exciting development in their region are growing with every week.
Construction began in July 2005 of the first phase of a high-technology John Baarda facility at Billingham, and just six months later, 23 acres are fully planted with a range of premium tomato varieties, to be sold under the Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference and the Somerfield So Good range. The speed of the construction, in often extremely trying conditions, meant that the first Elegance - planted in October - was picked in mid-January and Aranca is already in-store. Midi-plum and Piccolo will all be on-shelf in the next few weeks. “We have been particularly pleased with the flavour so far. You usually expect first picks to be a little weak in taste, but this hasn’t been the case.”
The phase I development is split into six 15,000sqm blocks, the biggest single-lit project undertaken in the world, according to Hortilux, which supplied the 14,500 lights. “It will provide the opportunity to grow product in the UK 52 weeks of the year by developing cost-effective lit production,” says Baarda, who adds that the use of the facility for 12 months instead of the traditional eight months production cycle dilutes overhead costs and yield will increase by 50 per cent.
“The commitment all the way down the line from the contractors, Tees Valley Regeneration, our own staff and our customers has been superb,” says Baarda. “If you’d looked at the site in July and said planting would begin in four months, you would not have believed it possible, but the majority of the contractors we’ve used have carried out similar jobs in Holland. At times there have been as many as 10 contractor groups on site, all wanting to do something different, which is challenging logistically, but everything was finished on schedule.
“This is a very good project for the area - as of yesterday we had 73 staff on the payroll and the last job advert received more than 400 applications.”
Good for the north east then, but what does the development mean for the tomato industry in the UK? Sainsbury’s buyer Chris Wells says: “Sainsbury’s are delighted to be associated with this ground-breaking project. The development by David and his team will enable us to provide our customers with even more British tomatoes, while helping reduce CO2 emissions. It is important to Sainsbury’s to provide fresh and tasty produce; the ability to do this year-round from the UK, using our preferred varieties, is a huge benefit. It is great to see our growers involved in such an exciting innovation.”
There have been a number of issues with the attempted transfer of northern European varieties to southern European production environments to fill the gaps in the calendar and while there have been some notable successes, such as cherry on-the-vine in Italy, there has also been a desire among northern European buyers to extend the shoulders of the region’s season as far as possible.
“A lot of Spanish growers opted to go for a gap in production this winter as there have been virus pressures, particularly with white fly,” says Fresh Link marketing director Paul Faulkner, who picked up the Business Initiative of the Year award at last week’s Grower Awards. “The last couple of winters have been tough for Spanish and Canary Islands growers and there has been more product coming in from places such as Poland, Morocco and Senegal. But there has also been a general feeling in the UK that retailers would like to get hold of more British fruit in the medium and long term. Poland for instance has labour cost advantages now, but they will undoubtedly rise in the years to come, and they also have the whole of Europe to trade with. On that basis, will the Poles want to commit to what the UK market demands, this is certainly not the premium-price market it used to be and standards are extremely high.”
John Baarda’s project is the ultimate in season extension, as the first truly large-scale 12-month tomato production venture undertaken in the UK. “The quality of winter production in the UK will improve significantly as a result of this,” says Faulkner, “and that is a big leap forward. We can grow Elegance here for 12 months without compromising the benefits the variety brings to the shelf. The top four TTD products in Sainsbury’s are tomatoes, so there is little doubt that Sainsbury’s sees the category as extremely important to them. They are also committed to the British grower and [as reported recently in FPJ] will sell £14 million more home-grown tomatoes in 2006.”
New glass in Evesham and Sussex is also helping Sainsbury’s to achieve its goals, and represents a turnaround for the British tom industry, which despite the increasing energy pressures is showing itself to be a resilient animal. “Given that Sainsbury’s already buys more British tomatoes than any other UK retailer, this is an incredible commitment,” Faulkner says. “Production will be focused on the TTD range because of the flavour and visual benefits. If Billingham produced a standard product, you wouldn’t really see that benefit in-store.”
David Baarda adds: “For John Baarda, this is all additional business. Our original sites will continue to produce the same volume as before.”
Everything that has been installed in phase I has been sized and fitted with the construction of another 15 acres in mind. Phase II has no set timetable at this juncture, but the ground has been levelled, and the utility pipes, irrigation systems and drainage are all ready to go. “It would be a case of standing the glass up,” says Baarda, no doubt under-estimating the task slightly, but then having over-seen a relatively smooth construction this time around you can hardly blame him.
Hanging gutters, thermal screens, automated transportation for the fruit and a brand new packhouse, soon to be completed, add to the state-of-the-art feel to the site given by the lights installed in the 6.3m high glass roof. And production methods have been, and will continue to be, adapted to suit the new environment. The local press has been particularly interested for instance that each block gives a home to 2,700 bumble bees and the 105 metre paths of plants.
Others will no doubt be keen to imitate the project, but it is easier said than done in the UK, he says: “There are not many sites where this can be done in the UK, as the availability of CO2 is such an important constituent. The scale of this project has never been attempted before and the technology involved and symbiotic links with Terra would be very hard to replicate. Best practise has to be relevant to your location, you can’t just copy people.”
Faulkner adds: “This is a huge step change - the UK industry is really taking a lead in protected crops. There have been trials in the past, but nothing on this scale. It was crucial that John Baarda secured the right level of business for this site and they have done that.”
And Baarda concludes: “The principles of what we are doing are right, the partnerships are all in place and we have negotiated the construction process without too much fuss. I’m pleased it has gone so well, now we’ve got to start paying it back.”
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