The fresh produce industry has delivered many new initiatives in recent years and there is widespread confidence that these efforts will result in its sustained progression. Thanks to healthy eating campaigns such as 5 A DAY and Eat in Colour, public awareness of the nutritional benefits of fruit and vegetables, as well as how they are produced, has risen in recent years and the sector has continued working hard to educate consumers across the UK.
“The real aim of Eat in Colour (EiC) and 5 A DAY has been to break and change consumer habits,” says Dom Lane, associate director of Bray Leino, the PR company that spearheaded the EiC healthy eating campaign for the Fresh Produce Consortium. “It’s about so much more than just promoting fruit and vegetables - we’re trying to get consumers into different habits when choosing their shopping baskets and to carry on these habits for a lifetime.”
The EiC campaign is continuing as a consumer website and Lane says some of its main achievements have been to offer practical advice and reinspire consumers. “EiC directly tapped into our cultural activity; we weren’t being all preachy and taking ourselves too seriously, it’s all about balance - yes, by all means eat chocolate at Easter or a pint of lager in the evening, but have some fruit and veg too.”
Lane insists it would be a “real shame” if the fresh produce industry did not continue to invest in healthy eating campaigns in the future.
Children are being taught about fresh produce at an early age and experts hope that by capturing their imagination at the start, interest and hopefully even involvement in the sector will prevail for years to come. Indeed, targeting the grocery buyers of tomorrow is a key aim for fresh produce associations including the British Tomato Growers’ Association (TGA) and the Potato Council.
However, TGA chief executive Gerry Hayman maintains that it is not about the hard sell. “Children have to enjoy eating fruit and vegetables,” he says. “It’s about appealing to their tastes and not just telling them to eat something because it’s good for their health.”
Hayman says that while in the past there has been the perception that some children have disliked eating tomatoes, the introduction of newer varieties such as speciality cherry tomatoes, piccolo and baby plum types are finding favour among young consumers.
Educating children about how tomatoes are grown is another way to engage them and in recent years, key tomato growers have held nursery days on which children can take a look around their operations. “These have offered real learning opportunities for children and there has been a significant interest in exploring the more scientific elements of production, such as measuring light levels and carbon dioxide levels in the glasshouses,” says Hayman.
The website - www.thetomatozone.co.uk - is aimed at children aged five to 16+ and is popular with teachers, especially in May when British Tomato Week is held, when the site can get up to 100,000 hits.
Meanwhile, the Potato Council has enjoyed significant success with its Grow Your Own Potatoes project, which this year will see participating schools plant seed potatoes in March and harvest their crops in June. “Lessons learned early in life often endure and educating the next generation of shoppers now will help to build future demand for potatoes,” says Caroline Evans, head of marketing and corporate affairs at the Potato Council.
Now in its sixth year, the Grow Your Own Potatoes project is the first nationwide potato-growing initiative for primary schools. “It has become the largest of its kind and to date, has educated more than 750,000 young children about potatoes; where they come from, how they grow and why they are an important part of a healthy, balanced diet,” Evans says.
Registration is underway for 2010 and more than 10,000 schools have already signed up. However, Evans says there is still time for the industry to recruit schools before the registration deadline in February.
Under the scheme, each registered school receives a growing kit and this year, the Potato Council will offer a number of prizes, such as an allotment makeover for the school that yields the heaviest crop and runner-up prizes of eco-friendly picnic tables and playground benches.
Evans says support for the project has been positive, with growers offering assistance. As ever though, the project continues to seek further industry support. In addition, Farming & Countryside Education (FACE), the British Nutrition Foundation and many regional agricultural societies are also closely involved in the project, as is the gardening editor of The Sun, Peter Seabrook MBE.
“There is no doubt that Grow Your Own Potatoes is a flagship project that is really making a difference,” says Bill Graham, head of education at FACE. “The key to its success is that it is just so easy to take part and the project can be incorporated into the curriculum in a wide variety of ways. I look forward to the time when all schools will be taking part in this scheme.”
According to Evans, feedback from teachers, parents and the children themselves shows that the project really helps them to understand the origins of food and associate potatoes with healthy eating.
While exploring these issues is an investment in the next generation of shoppers, Evans says it can also have more immediate payback by feeding straight through to the family shopping basket.
Nevertheless, securing the long-term growth of the potato category is a challenge and the Potato Council says fresh potato consumption remains robust, but is dominated by those aged 45 and over. “This means, in order to protect the long-term future of the UK potato industry, we must engage with younger consumers and persuade them to choose potatoes more often,” says Evans.
New media channels have become an important tool in the Potato Council’s marketing strategy, with a focus on Twitter, Facebook and online promotions. Evans says that this is where dialogue needs to continue. “The industry needs to increase awareness and understanding of the benefits of potatoes, and we also need to ensure these messages are reaching our target audiences and provide a range of recipe ideas to suit their lifestyles,” she tells FPJ.
The Potato Council’s marketing initiatives in 2010 will continue to build on the foundations put down in 2009. The association will continue with the Supercarb campaign, highlighting the health credentials of potatoes. A petition will remain on the Downing Street website until May in order to raise awareness of potatoes among MPs, journalists and ultimately, consumers.
Securing the future of the industry inevitably involves hard work, energy and innovation. This year’s entries for the Fruit Logistica Innovation Award include a sweet, long-stemmed variety of broccoli, an organic banana with a green, wax-coated tip and savoury-spiced Californian pistachios. More than 50,000 trade visitors from 120 countries will have a chance to vote for the innovation of the year.
Meanwhile, UK retailers are often lauded for their attempts to drive fresh produce innovation and Marks & Spencer in particular has been singled out for its range of fruit and vegetable varieties. The speciality cream carrot launched by M&S last November is grown by vegetable grower Steven Jack in Scotland and has attracted much attention. The Creme de Lite variety is believed to be sweeter in taste than its orange cousin and has a similar appearance to a long, thin parsnip.
The retailer also trialled small volumes of tiny pear Bambinella last summer. Sourced from Malta’s Ta’Qali Producers Group (TPG), M&S has been working in conjunction with Worldwide Fruit Ltd. M&S pear specialist Emmett Lunny says the Tiny Pears “would be great for lunchboxes, as well as for those who want to liven up the look of their fruit bowl”. Bambinella will also be grown in the UK this year.
Of course, securing any future business means that it has to be commercially viable in the first place. Hayman says that maximum production efficiency - the highest possible yield and quality at the lowest unit cost - is needed. “Modern production facilities are a must to achieve this in the longer term, but their high capital cost requires confidence in the future to make that investment and in a way, this is a catch 22,” he says.
Indeed, investment in some quarters is under threat and sources have also expressed concerns about the recent swingeing government cuts in research and development. Factor in the global recession, rising supplies and eroding price premiums and the sector could face difficult decisions in years to come.
On a more positive note, UK consumers are known for their experimental tastes and as new varieties continue to filter onto the retail shelves, supporters say offering superior-quality product, competitive prices and efficiencies in the supply chain on a long-term basis will put producers in a favourable position.
OPEN FARM SUNDAY AIMS HIGH
There are high hopes for this year’s Open Farm Sunday, which will take place on 13 June. Organiser LEAF (Linking Environment And Farming) is hoping to see a rise in the number of farms opening up and more visitors than last year in total.
“Open Farm Sunday is about farmers connecting with the general public and as far as fresh produce growers are concerned, the most important thing for their future security is consumers, whether that is the general public or the customers they are supplying,” says event manager Tom Allen-Stevens. “The event gives consumers a real opportunity to see where their food is grown and it can only be a good thing if our event helps them look at the back of fresh produce packets and see that they are helping to support locally grown and British produce.”
Retail sponsorship is strong this year and Asda, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer will join Waitrose in showing their support.
Some 21 workshops will be held in the UK to help farmers gear up for the big day and new for this year will be a virtual workshop on the Open Farm Sunday website - www.farmsunday.org - in order to help those farmers who cannot get to one. The first workshop will begin on 3 March at Kingston Hill Farm in Oxon and they will run on different farms throughout the month.
Open Farm Sunday 2009 attracted 140,000 visitors, who were welcomed onto 425 farms across the UK.
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