Asda received its first consignment of UK baby carrots last week as the retailer looks to extend the shoulders of the British season.
The carrots, from MH Poskitt in Yorkshire, were grown exclusively for Asda using various growing methods aimed at starting the season earlier and ending it later.
Asda’s Glasshoughton store in Yorkshire took the first consignment, just five miles away from the carrots’ origin in Kellington, with an emphasis on reducing the carbon footprint of the product, which was previously airfreighted in from South Africa.
Peter Gresty of MH Poskitt told freshinfo: “This is the second season we have grown for Asda after last year’s summer season, but the first full season we have done.
“We are very pleased to be delivering around two weeks earlier than normal as we have been working with Asda using new techniques to start the season earlier. We are also looking at going all the way through to December, depending on frost.
“I’m expecting an increase in production this year, as the focus has been on bringing in the UK crop a lot earlier using variety selection, carefully choosing fields, crop coverings and hand weeding on the early crops, so we don’t have to use herbicides.”
MH Poskitt will deliver around three to four tonnes of the premium product a week to stores in Yorkshire and then nationwide. The first seeds were sown in February.
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