British tomatoes are in season, and after one of the warmest Aprils in memory, the crop is hitting the shelves in abundant quantities. That’s leading to optimism that the industry could emerge from a period of severe pressure to push forward, especially backed by a wave of new domestic investment.
Certainly the weather has been good for tomato growing this year, according to Gerry Hayman of the British Tomato Growers’ Association. “The wall-to-wall sunshine has given us a fantastic start,” he says. “January wasn’t great for us because it was so dull, but at the moment there is no reason why there shouldn’t be an excellent crop of fantastic quality.”
Richard Marsh, manager of sourcing and grower relations at The Greenery UK, agrees. “Crops look good as a result of early season weather and light levels, though it is still too early in the season to speculate what the production levels will look like after the spring.”
The positive predictions are a welcome boost to the British tomato industry, which has been buffeted hard by rising input costs and competition from imports. The amount of land given over to tomato production in the UK has steadily declined over the past 25 years from 425 hectares in 1985 to around 210ha in 2009 [Defra]. In 2000, less than 300,000 tonnes of tomatoes were imported; in 2009, the figure was nearly 400,000t [UN Comtrade].
Fuel costs have also hit British producers hard, and some growers opted to delay the start of the season by sowing their crops two to three weeks later than usual to cut down on the high costs of heating glasshouses. “Due to very high fuel costs, we made the conscious decision to go a little bit later with our production,” says one grower. “There is incredible pressure. It affects every one of the glasshouse crops - tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, peppers.”
He argues that retailers must recognise the pressure faced by the industry and pay more for home-grown crops. “If fuel costs continue to go up, then for the UK glasshouse industry to continue, the customer or the consumer will have to pay higher prices.” Currently growers are absorbing the increased costs, he says, but that is unsustainable.
Marsh agrees fuel costs have put the industry under severe pressure: “Fuel costs are certainly a factor again, as are many other increasing input costs that growers are faced with - and there is always the threat of supply contraction when costs are not being recovered. We continue to look for efficiencies that offset those increases, but that is also becoming increasingly difficult.”
Some growers are saving money by heating their glasshouses with alternative sources of power. Cornerways Nursery, owned by British Sugar, is one such example. It has recently bucked the trend in the tomato industry and expanded production from 11ha to 18ha. It heats its glasshouses with hot water carried from the sugar factory’s combined heat and power plant that would otherwise be wasted. “At pretty much every other sugar refinery in the world, the spare heat just goes up in the air,” says Hayman. “But at Cornerways, the heat gets ducted to the glasshouses.”
The expansion has raised production from 80 million tomatoes to around 140m tomatoes annually, making Cornerways the UK’s largest tomato nursery. Nursery manager Nigel Bartle says that while the alternative heating system helps, it doesn’t shield the business from other rising costs. “Energy is an important cost and it affects growers in all sorts of different ways, from the haulage, to the price of packaging, plastic films, punnets, all sorts of things. All sorts of people including us have got alternative solutions to deliver heating using surplus sources. But we see inflation in all sorts of things that cost us money - fertiliser, string, rockwool, grow bags, and all of those things have an impact somewhere. The key bit is can you get a sustainable return and sustainable prices?”
Other suppliers are generating their own power in other ways. John and Caroline Jones from Hertfordshire run Guy and Wright, which recently featured on BBC1’s Jimmy’s Food Factory. Their tomato glasshouses are heated with power generated from biogas. “They take waste fruit and vegetables from London markets and it ferments and produces methane,” says Hayman. “That then powers their turbines, which produces electricity they feed into the grid, and they also produce heat that heats their greenhouses and also carbon dioxide for their glasshouses.”
Caroline Jones says the methane generates around 20 per cent of their fuel needs, but they are now installing a straw boiler to try to generate even more of their own power. “The methane side is building up but it is a slow process,” she explains. “Hopefully the straw boiler will be running by September. It will use great big bales of straw, which we’ll use to heat the water.”
Despite these imaginative developments, Marsh says there are concerns about the domestic industry contracting further because investment is hard to come by. “We know firsthand at Greenery UK that the banks are very risk averse when it comes to financing greenhouse operations,” he says. “Grower margins are very low and despite a preference for British, there remains a risk that prices will continue to be pressured. Low return on investment of course affects investment interest,” continues Marsh. “Most growers I speak to are concerned that import prices are used to pressure them down - and over time that may well result in fewer items being grown in the UK.”
Despite these problems, Kantar data shows tomato sales have grown over the past year. Volume sales are fairly static at +0.7 per cent [52 w/e 17 April], while the value of the market has grown more significantly, up 8.9 per cent to £677.8m, indicating retail prices have risen. While volumes of standard tomatoes are down 7.2 per cent, other more expensive varieties such as cherry (up 11.3 per cent), plum (up eight per cent) and vine (up 6.9 per cent) are all in volume growth, indicating consumers are trading up and opting for affordable treats.
Bartle says he is hopeful the industry can promote itself and avoid further contraction. “We hope certainly that with events like British Tomato Week, we highlight the provenance and why it is good. There is great support in the general retailers for getting British product out there. But in order to run a UK glasshouse industry, we do need the returns that justify what we do and to cover the costs inherent with growing here.”
BRITISH TOMATO WEEK READY FOR ACTION
British Tomato Week, which runs from 15 - 22 May, is once again aiming to generate publicity and increase sales through a combination of supermarket tastings, cookery demonstrations and a week-long event at the Houses of Parliament.
Gerry Hayman of the British Tomato Growers’ Association hopes the week will help promote the culinary and health benefits of the UK crop. “It’s not often that something which tastes good is also good for you,” he says. “The whole idea of the week is to tell people we have got fresh British tomatoes in the shops in volume.”
Chefs at the Houses of Parliament will be incorporating tomatoes in dishes served in the restaurants and cafes of Whitehall, and there will be a tasting area in Portcullis House, while a brave volunteer will dress as a tomato for a photo opportunity on College Green on
18 May.
Hayman says growers will take part in in-store tastings at supermarkets around the country and retailers will be displaying the new British Tomato Week logo alongside the fruit. Such was the success of last year’s British Tomato Week, businesses not originally affiliated with the scheme, such as garden centres, have decided to run promotions this year for products such as tomato plants.
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