These are good times for British carrots. A combination of steadily improving sales figures, backed by canny and imaginative marketing, is ensuring that the vegetable is strengthening its position at the forefront of UK produce.
According to Freshgro managing director and chairman of the British Carrot Growers’ Association, Martin Evans, the industry has spent 10 years putting forward the health message to consumers, but now is the time to ‘get out there and make it interesting.’
As part of this, the association has been putting a number of initiatives into practice to engage both the general public and children in particular.
The Great British Carrots campaign is now into its second year, with the next generation of consumers very much the focus of attention. In launching this year’s events, Evans pointed out that ‘today’s children are the carrot consumers of the future and it’s our job to make sure that the UK’s favourite vegetable stays that way for generations to come’, in so doing alluding to a Mintel study showing carrots to be the most popular vegetable item.
The campaign takes on a variety of incarnations. At the forefront of this is an interactive puppet roadshow featuring the tale of Captain Carrot and his battles with the evil Baron von Burger and the Noxious Nuggets. Backing this is a ‘Carro Van’, touring shopping centres and handing out carrot samples to the public.
And that is only the start of it. Six new recipes have been created by celebrity chef Rachel Green, with photography by award winning lensman Michael Powell, which are being featured throughout the national and regional press. In the autumn a visit to a carrot farm for children from an inner city school in Leeds is taking place, while a Carrot Carnival will be held at Doddington Hall in Lincoln in late September. Aimed at local primary schoolchildren, a range of activities will include planting carrots, tastings and cookery.
Supporting all this are no less than three specific websites, www.britishcarrots.co.uk, a dedicated press area at www.carrots4press.co.uk and the soon-to-be-launched www.carrots4kids.co.uk.
The campaign has received significant support from UK growers. Leading carrot producer Guy Poskitt told Commercial Grower that the various initiatives are a ‘tremendous effort, particularly in view of the limited resources available to the sector.’ He strongly backed the approach of targeting children - ‘tomorrow’s consumers’ - adding that for the long term future of the sector engaging kids with vegetables is absolutely crucial.
While offering his backing to the government’s healthy eating schemes, Poskitt still believes it is vital for individual crop sectors to promote themselves. While cut snack and prepared carrots are experiencing a real upsurge, he reports, life is still tough for growers of loose. Specific promotions can be beneficial for all varieties.
Poskitt was one of a number of UK carrot growers making an appearance at the BBC Good Food Show last year, which gave them access to a sizeable 130,000 consumers over the course of the exhibition. Poskitt describes the experience as invaluable, and a great opportunity to work together to promote the crop.
Indeed, last year was a good one for the UK carrot sector overall. With declining sales figures seemingly now a thing of the past, expenditure was up over two percent and volume sales over one percent, small changes which make a significant impact on the overall market value.
Carrots were splashed well and truly across the public radar, appearing in the spotlight on BBC Breakfast and Radio Two’s Steve Wright show, among others, and featuring in numerous consumer articles.
Statistically, according to the Great British Carrots campaign, £280 million is spent every year in Britain on carrots alone, with 22 billion seeds planted in the country leading to the production of 100 of the vegetable per year for every member of the population.
Around 9,000 hectares, or twice the area as that produced in the Netherlands, is planted, with all the root tips - if laid end to end - stretching far enough to make 2.5 return trips to the moon.
Martin Evans concludes that there is much to toast in terms of UK growers’ performance at present, particularly the fact that the industry has achieved year round supply of carrots this year. Growing in locations from across the British Isles, the sector has been able to meet consumer and retailer demands for lower ‘food miles’ and a greater proportion of locally produced food.
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