Noted for its generally mild climate in comparison to the rest of the UK, Cornwall is usually a staple vegetable provider over the winter months. But growers in the South West are finding life exceptionally hard this season, as tight supply and high retail prices conspire to keep the county guessing what may happen next.
Southern England Farms’ technical director Alasdair MacLennan says it has been a very difficult winter. “Temperatures have been below average from November onwards, but last week temperatures hit -10°C on crops across Cornwall. There is a lot of damage to veg and we are still assessing the impact.”
Nigel Clare, managing director at Marshalls, agrees. “This year, the cold conditions have been the worst that I have encountered in Cornwall for at least 10 years,” he says. “Our crops have been running well behind normal expected harvesting times, especially cauliflower, which has been four to five weeks behind. This is causing major headaches, with supply patterns severely disrupted and, combined with abnormally cold conditions in Spain, has resulted in a major shortage of brassica crops throughout December and early January. Coupled with some poor plantings and drillings of spring greens during the summer, this means that this has been the lowest volume taken out of the Cornish region for cauliflower and broccoli for as long as I can remember.”
The trouble started brewing back in the summer when planting in the ground in July and August was delayed. “Supply of spring greens has been tough because of difficult planting,” says MacLennan. “Cauli has also been a struggle but the last couple of days have made things a lot worse. The quality of the cauliflower and spring greens we have had has been good, but availability has been tight. It really has been a very difficult season so far for continuity and things have taken a distinct turn for the worse in the last few days. We don’t usually have these extremes of temperature in Cornwall.”
Even Christmas, despite heralding a peak, saw sales behind last year’s levels, says MacLennan.
“This Christmas was a very long affair, with trading coming over four days and not the normal two-day blip,” explains Clare. “So we had a controlled build-up to Christmas that made it more manageable than in previous years.”
Cornish veg prices have been high this winter, corresponding to the tight supply, says MacLennan, but that has also impacted negatively on sales. “Retails are high but it is limiting supplies,” he explains. “This year, price per head is around £1.19, but this time last year we were looking at 68-78p.”
Demand so far has severely outstripped supply throughout the season, says Clare. “Whatever the retails have been or could have been would not have changed the fact that, to date, we have been extremely short of cauliflower and spring greens.
“However, I think we have to look hard at what these crops have been retailed at for the last five years, to see that retails and cost prices of the crops have resulted in reduced acreages. Hence, these crops have not enjoyed being on a sustainable cost base to encourage increased acreage. Hence when acreage is nearly in line with demand, we always run the risk that with poor weather, we will see increased demand outstripping a margin acreage crop.”
Marshalls has been involved in Cornwall since 1992-93, but the firm’s grower base in the region has reduced over the years to a smaller number of larger growers. “This has been due to the fact that smaller growers cannot survive on the returns that we have seen over the past five years and we need to have larger growers who can try to survive on a smaller margin off a larger acreage,” says Clare. “This is a real shame for the region, but one that now seems irreversible.”
This season’s brassica shortfall has led to greater volumes of French product coming in to bridge the supply gap. “The quality of the French stuff has been fine, but it is expensive,” says MacLennan.
However, Cornish vegetable growers can at least make the most of increased demand for their product. The past year has thrown up several local produce initiatives in the Cornish region, and Marshalls is involved in one such project. “I personally feel this initiative is great, allowing the consumer to relate to the product and for us all to see increased sales of UK products that are healthy for all,” says Clare.
In April last year, Bristol Fruit Sales (BFS), which operates a branch in Bodmin, launched its Growfair - Pride of Cornwall brand, which has gone from strength to strength since its inception. Mark Oughtred, brand development manager, tells FPJ: “Growfair is doing very well. Its unique packaging and professional branding have helped people follow it.”
The scheme fosters a win-win relationship for fruit, veg and salad growers in the county to meet consumer demand for local food and return fair prices to producers. Products sold under the banner at the moment include white cauliflower, spring cabbage, carrots and leeks and, in the spring, Cornish new potatoes and asparagus.
“The nice thing is that we can use the brand year-round when different Cornish products are in season,” says Oughtred. “We can maintain a market presence for 12 months.
“The trend for home-grown food, especially in the current economic climate, can certainly be used to the brand’s advantage.”
This year, BFS will be extending the brand into neighbouring county Devon under the Growfair - Pride of Devon banner, using its Paignton depot as a base. “The first year of the brand was testing the water and smoothing out any wrinkles,” says Oughtred. “We really wanted to take our time. A lot of the work has been about getting the growers to understand the concept.”
There are now 14 growers on board the Cornish project, a few of whom have joined up since the launch, including a carrot grower.
The brand was developed with Objective One funding from Taste of the West and an ongoing partnership with the University of Plymouth, as part of a government-funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership. The customer base includes foodservice firms, secondary wholesalers and retail markets in the South West, including hotel chains Brend Hotel Group and Tresanton Hotel.
However, branding and local produce projects aside, key players agree that the remainder of the winter season will be far from easy. Clare is concerned about increased ground temperatures in late January and early February, which would cause an explosion of crop, thus resulting in greater volumes for the market. “It is fair to say that I feel this year we would all have liked to see a steady production run of cauliflower and spring greens, to allow all the crop to be marketed at a reasonable price, rather than the peaks and shortages that we look to be experiencing this season,” he says.
As FPJ went to press, temperatures were expected to warm up a little and producers were hoping for crops to thaw out - but the extreme weather means growers will struggle on quality throughout January. “We could see a breakdown in the product and maybe more yellow leaf,” says MacLennan.
The end of the season, which normally winds up at the end of March, will be dependent on the effects of the heavy frost. “There may be some gaps in the season,” adds MacLennan.
Marshalls will switch to sourcing from Lincolnshire in the spring, but Clare says it is too early for any indications of how that county’s crops are looking.“I think our spring production is going to be late due to really cold conditions in Lincolnshire. But nature has a way of rectifying itself and the next four weeks will be crucial to the final outcome of our start dates,” he adds.
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