G's Growers' toasts 30 years of supplying produce

Thirty years of co-operation and working together to supply the UK with fresh salads and vegetables is cause for celebration at G's Growers.

Founded in 1985, G’s Growers started as a group of 20 East Anglia-based growers who came together in a bid to more effectively service the emerging multiple UK supermarkets.

Over the course of the past 30 years, there have been 77 members within the co-operative, with 23 currently active within the membership, with only one member leaving the producer organisation (due to retirement) since 2002.

G’s Growers chairman Richard Hirst, said: “The foundations of G’s growers can be traced back to a small number of growers who identified that by working together they could bring scale of production to more efficiently grow, harvest and market their crops, helping deliver a stronger competitive edge and more economic prices for consumers.

'In recent years the G’s Grower co-operative has accessed joint funding through the Rural Payments Agency and the EU to ensure UK agriculture is at the forefront of global developments.”

G’s Growers UK members are mostly located in East Anglia, but also in the West Midlands, Sussex and the Murcia region of Spain.

James Foskett, of James Foskett Farms, based in East Suffolk, has been a grower and member of the co-operative for 14 years.

Of being a part of G's, Foskett said: “We have expanded our onion enterprise from 40 acres to 375 acres since we became members. Storage has increased from nothing to 6,000 tonnes of cold-box storage now under our control, and with a 1,250 tonne cold-bulk store just starting construction for this harvest.

'Without being part of G’s Growers and having access to some of the PO funding this expansion wouldn’t have been possible. The funding has helped with box purchase as well as grading, soil preparation, establishment and the best agronomy advice for the onion crop. Co-operative growing of the crop and central grading for the members has benefitted all the G’s onion growers and our customers who now have UK-grown onions on their shelves nearly all year round.”