Dutch fresh produce supplier Koppert Cress BV has launched three new products into the UK foodservice market. The company, which breeds and grows different types of cress and speciality items, such as edible flowers and mini melons, had its new offer - Oyster leaves, Apple Blossom and the Dulce mix of boxed cress - on show at the Food & Drink Expo at the Birmingham NEC this week.
New marketing manager for the UK Anneke Cuppen said that most of the products have been available for Dutch customers for the two weeks, but now the company is ready to offer the products to UK caterers and chefs.
“The Dulce mix is a catering box of four different types of what we call warm cresses, as they have to be stored at 15 C, and it consists of lemon cress, Atsina cress, Sechuan cress and basil cress,” Cuppen told FPJ.
“We call our Oyster leaves the vegetarian oyster, as it really has a taste of the sea. We have been supplying these to Dutch companies for six months and demand has really increased.
“The Apple blossom flowers taste like a Granny Smith apple, and this has also been very popular in the Netherlands, with 300-400 boxes being ordered a week. We think that all three products will be very popular with chefs in the UK, who are looking for something different.”
- The company has had to move production of its edible Karma orchid line from Thailand to the Netherlands in the last three months, due to quality issues. On inspection, Koppert Cress found that the imported Karma orchids had been grown with the use of pesticides, and so discontinued production, causing a shortage of the edible flower. “Sales were stopped, as spraying crops is totally against the company’s ideals,” said Cuppen. “The amount of chemical spray used was very minimum, and we were told that a person would have to eat 10,000 orchids to be affected, but we didn’t want that, so production was stopped and luckily we found a grower in the Netherlands that could take the production on.”
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