Salads giant G’s has opened new radish washing and grading lines at its UK radish hub as the UK season gets underway.
The new facilities at Feltwell Growers in Norfolk will replace the old wash lines and building structures, which were cleared at the end of the 2017 season in October.
Over the winter, G’s raced to construct a new 980sq metre building to house five new lines to wash and grade the radish crop as it comes out of the fenland soil.
“Production of UK radish traditionally starts on St Georges Day, so given the cooler-than-average weather conditions through February and March, we are pleased to have UK crop being trialled through the new line,” said Scott Watson, general manager of G’s Feltwell Growers.
Construction was completed in only five-and-a-half months despite a harsh winter, G’s said, describing the new investment as “one of the final pieces of the jigsaw to modernise the G’s radish business and prime it for future category growth”.
Radish has been one of the fastest-growing categories in UK salads and, to keep pace with demand, G’s has continually invested in its radish business over the past 10 years, improving growing and harvesting techniques, as well as packing operations.
G’s will continue to support the radish category with its Love Radish PR campaign in 2018, encouraging food influencers to promote the vegetable in new ways.
G’s said it had a range of “exciting radish-based NPD” due to launch throughout the summer as it tries to encourage shoppers to take more interest in the category.
