The arrival of the new British asparagus season has a long history and is welcomed with delight by the public, despite the availability of imported product throughout the year. Consumption of asparagus in general has increased considerably over the last five years, with a noticeable flush of demand through the much-coveted British season. In 2002, when the UK Asparagus Growers’ Association (AGA) embarked on its PR campaign with Pam Lloyd PR, just three per cent of households in the UK purchased asparagus. Now, it is up to 14 per cent - even through the recession - with the AB social grade remaining the core consumers.
Long, cold winter
The amount of land used to grow asparagus in the UK has increased by 89 per cent since 2000 and the main growing area for the product remains the Vale of Evesham and its surrounds throughout the Midlands, Lincolnshire and south-west England, including the Isle of Wight. Popular in all routes to market, the product has launched many a farm shop and sustains farm-gate sales throughout the country; chefs compete to be the first to proudly provide it on their menus and the multiples dedicate probably more shelf space to UK spears than any other new-season fresh vegetable, with 70 per cent of asparagus in the UK sold via their outlets.
This year, the season got off to a slow start, making the British public more eager for the product than usual. Forced asparagus grown under polythene or in glasshouses came on stream towards the end of March, with Herefordshire-based Cobrey Farms, among others, delivering on a small scale to farm shops and farmers’ market, and eventually to local restaurants and eateries. The warm weather before the May bank holiday weekend saw spears shoot up, however, and harvests are now in full swing up and down the country.
“The season has been late in starting because of the late spring,” says Cobrey Farms owner John Chinn, who sells asparagus under the Wye Valley Asparagus brand. “We will have less yield this year than last; when we have a cold winter, we tend to get more buds breaking with a sudden flush of good weather. This is not good news as we want a steady harvest, which is much better for supplying supermarkets. We are in an early producing area so we will be in full swing in the first week of May.
“We have many promotions lined up and it works in our favour that asparagus is such an icon of the best of British production. Supermarkets are very keen to promote British asparagus.”
The firm produces around 30 tonnes of asparagus a day at peak, mostly for the multiples, with production of new variety Royal Crown exclusively going into Marks & Spencer under the Discovery brand.
Worcestershire-based Revills Farm started to harvest its asparagus crop 12 years ago, from 10 acres. Having supplied Waitrose for the last four years, as well as providing asparagus for its own farm shop and local wholesalers for more than 10 years, the business has now built production to just under 100a and expects a yield of around 700t this season. The family firm initially sold asparagus through the farm shop it set up seven years ago and has increased its yield due to steady demand through the UK season. It now also offers prepared asparagus products. This year, Revills’ farm shop started to stock asparagus three weeks before the campaign’s official launch on St George’s Day.
“People say it is late, but we have been at a St George’s Day event before without any product, and this year there is a reasonable amount about,” Revills’ farm shop manager Darren Hedges told FPJ at The Great British Asparagus Run event on 23 April, where the company shared a stand with the Eckington Manor Cookery School. “We have reasonable volumes for this time of year, with some under glass and some in the field. Because the weather has been nice recently, the grass has been warming up, but we are still getting frosts, so it has been slow. Most of our crowns have been in the ground for some time, so they are well seasoned.
“We harvest every day through the season using a team of eastern European workers, and there is always big demand from all our customers.”
Paul Hayden, owner of Birlingham Nurseries, near Pershore, has been cutting his asparagus crop for 16 years and has developed a glasshouse production system, as well as growing spears in the open field. Supplying mainly wholesalers and caterers in the Worcestershire area, Hayden works to organic methods and grades and packs asparagus on site. “It is just manic and there are not enough hours in the day,” he says. “We started harvesting the indoor crop in March and it has been every day since then.”
Birlingham Nurseries built a new glasshouse to grow asparagus in 1992 and yield has been steadily increasing each year. “We could continue to harvest past the season, but it would be to our disadvantage next year, as the ferns need to grow so that the energy built up in them can transfer back into the crown,” says Hayden. “We have cut our asparagus exactly to the same week as we did last year on both our indoor and outdoor crop. So it looks like the good weather has enabled the season to catch up with itself.”
Proving that there is still room for development in the asparagus arena, Chinn has been successfully supplying M&S, through Flamingo, with his new crop of early-season purple asparagus for three years. “We have 20a now and we are building it up gradually,” he says. “It will be our fourth season from the crowns next year and it has taken a lot of effort in plant breeding to get us here.
“Our new variety, Royal Crown, is sweeter and more tender than the usual varieties and people buy it at double the price. It is a very exciting movement in the category.”
Cobrey Farms is also investing in producing a new variety that will extend the season into August, October and possibly September. The farm will provide a limited crop of the new variety in 2011, with full volumes coming on stream in 2012.
Revills is also dabbling in purple asparagus, with four per cent of its asparagus production dedicated to the variety. “Purple asparagus has proved to be very popular,” says Hedges. “But we are waiting for further suppliers before we increase our production. We are waiting for the industry to have more confidence in it.”
When it comes to extending the season, not everyone is a believer. “Through the outlets I supply, although I do not supply the multiples, I have noticed that demand does drop off between the start of forced asparagus in mid-March and the start of the outdoor season in May,” says Hayden. “Some customers want it, but I don’t shift a quarter of what I do in April as I do in May. The outdoor crop always sees a peak in supply. I think we need to keep it seasonal and encourage consumers to wait until the right time to eat it.”
Money can’t buy you love
Although UK asparagus production only accounts for two per cent of what is grown in Europe, the crop is almost entirely taken up by domestic consumption and has a following in this country that compares to no other vegetable in Europe. But is that special relationship between the crop and the public in jeopardy as supermarkets strive to make asparagus more of a commodity? Only last week, Sainsbury’s promoted new-season UK asparagus as half price. With the late season bringing on further demand from consumers, the industry must wonder whether this kind of aggressive price-cutting is justified.
Andrew Fearne, professor of food marketing and supply chain management centre for value chain research at Kent Business School, believes that if UK producers continue to increase their acreage to provide further volume for the multiples to sell below premium price, the product will be devalued. Consumers who purchase asparagus will generally buy the product at any price, so why convince other shoppers to buy it below cost when it would be more effective to encourage the original purchasers to buy more at the correct price, he argues.
At March’s Euro Asper conference in Coventry, Fearne told delegates that the industry should note the findings of dunnhumby data. “Young adults and affluent shoppers overindex and people buying asparagus don’t care what they pay for good food, so don’t decrease the price,” he said at the time. “People are 80 per cent more likely to buy asparagus in south-east England and in London, asparagus tips overindex.
“There are parts of the country to target and young people buy their vegetables from convenience stores -there are avenues to go down to increase consumption. Do not follow blindly into the commodity trap and lose focus. The people who set the price do not understand the product. We have the customer base; we do not need to cut the price, just get more product into the areas that buy it. Consumer insight is the missing ingredient here.”
Chinn has a slightly different point of view. “[Fearne] was expressing disappointment in breeders not focusing on flavour, but rather cost reduction and cheaper varieties,” he reasons. “But there is such an enthusiasm for British asparagus; the new season is exciting for consumers and they can taste a difference. Some even say that it is like a different vegetable to imported lines. We are not commoditising asparagus by growing more, but we have to continue to promote the point of difference we can offer.”
The long and winding road
But this progressive sector of the vegetable industry still has a long way to go. Although AGA chairman Andy Allen of JW Allen & Sons is keen to highlight the premium vegetable’s merits and the promotional campaign’s rapid turnaround regarding consumption of the product, he believes that the lack of research into asparagus production under polythene in the UK and the availability of disease control options remain barriers.
Hayden is crying out for further research in asparagus production, especially regarding the glasshouse method. “I have had to learn as I go and talk among other indoor growers to find some answers, as DEFRA does not put any funding into it,” he explains. “We take readings every day to determine when the yield is declining and when to stop harvesting. We know immediately when the yield is too low. It is the most interesting crop that I have ever grown and we have used the same crowns for 16 years. The problem is that when the crop eventually dies, we cannot replant in that space. Growers have to be careful; they can be greedy, harvest for too long and destroy the future sustainability of the crop. It will be challenging to maximise our income sustainably in the next five to 10 years.”
However, the ultimate conundrum for a thriving industry is the juxtaposition of endeavouring to boost domestic consumption and increase production volumes in the UK, while trying to maintain asparagus’ niche appeal and premium price tag. Can it be done? Is it inevitable that this taste of British summertime will be devalued by the supermarkets’ price wars and the industry’s complacency to deliver the ammunition needed? Only time will tell.
Barlow says: “UK [asparagus] production can achieve premium prices and that position in the marketplace has been widely achieved. The higher the price is in the multiples, the higher a price it will reach in other outlets.
“Asparagus beds are a long-term investment and returns are vital to continue growth in production. It is important to increase communication with agents and buyers. Fresh produce prices in general are far too low; we are not valuing fresh produce properly. We are spending less of our disposable income on food than ever before and wasting a third of the food brought into the home. We do not need lower prices for people to buy more and then waste more…
“We are promoting British asparagus as an affordable luxury and have a point of difference compared to imports. We need to make sure we continue to make an impact.
“The number of households buying asparagus has increased fivefold since 2001, but we can go further. We should concentrate on areas of the population that buy good-quality asparagus at a premium price and look to increase purchasing frequency. We have made huge progress, but there is a lot further for us to go. There has been tremendous improvement and development in terms of production, but there are places for us to go; we can extend the season and make it earlier and later. But we mustn’t go too far and certainly not jeopardise the taste [consumers have] for the season. If we do this, I believe there will be opportunities for increased returns.”
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