The UK market knows its alliums and this year, supply and demand are expected to find a good balance as consumers vow to spend more time in the kitchen amid the trend for going back to basics.
British onions are now in season, having started with overwintered crops in July, before moving into sets and eventually into drilled crops, in two to three weeks. UK onion supply is almost year round as a result of advances in storage and new, earlier varieties. But in September and October in particular, the industry is set to go all out to promote the new season.
This year, the crop has been delayed by 10-14 days as a result of cooler temperatures at the start of the summer and bouts of heavy rain. The onion industry, as a whole, can expect between 380,000-400,000 tonnes to be harvested this season, with a reduction in acreage from 9,000 hectares to 8,200ha.
British garlic has just been harvested and will be available until December.
Jonathan Tole, chairman of trade body British Onions and business unit manager at Rustler Produce, says it is too early to tell how the season will pan out, but he maintains that both onions and garlic look promising. This season, the crossover from southern to northern hemisphere onion supply was seamless, but it is still too early to tell how the majority of the UK crops will shape up. “We definitely need some sunshine for the next six weeks,” says Tole. “If it continues to rain, quality and storability will be compromised.
“Returns will be dependent on the overall quality, yield and wastage in the onion crops. It is too early to say whether or not they will be satisfactory.”
The shape of the supply calendar is evolving to reflect the changing needs of the marketplace, on both categories. The Netherlands continues to be a major source of onions into the UK, mainly for foodservice and wholesale markets. But the last year has seen increased volumes of Dutch onions on the UK market for the value-type bags for retailers. Spain still features as a large exporter to the UK of its large grano-type onions, while UK growing and storage techniques have reduced the New Zealand window significantly to probably only four to six weeks, depending on the storability of home-grown crops.
“This coming year, UK growers and packers have made many changes and we will expect to see a much lower proportion of imported material,” says Tole. “Now that the EU marketing standards have changed, we have to make sure that we are capturing as much of the crop as possible and where appropriate, putting product in value packs. Essentially, we are trying to make use of as many onions as possible.”
Both the onion and garlic categories are home to a number of innovative companies ready to make the most of opportunities that come their way and boost consumption.
The Allium Alliance has developed strategic partnerships with both domestic and international onion growers. The Lincolnshire-based firm grows onions on widespread geographical locations to take full advantage of the favourable climatic and soil conditions. Malcolm Gray, managing director, has more than 30 years’ experience in the onion industry and has built up long-standing relationships with both local and international players. “This year, supply has moved pretty well because, in the import season, programmes are arranged to supply demand and it is not often that we get that wrong,” he says. “The overwintered crop has enjoyed some good prices because volumes were lower than in previous seasons. The quality of the crop is looking very good.
“Onions are an essential ingredient and as such, volumes are stable even though values are down. But everyone is trying to reduce prices to be competitive and that is beginning to hurt growers.
“The general feeling last year was that returns were poor, but we need to achieve better prices if we are to make onion growing sustainable and be able to reinvest in the business, as well as help fund promotional activities.
“But the recession does have a positive slant because it has highlighted the importance and versatility of onions, as there has been more emphasis on home cooking.”
At the same time, the promotion of the garlic category and awareness of the offer has been driven by forward-thinking companies.
The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight is one such firm. Owner Colin Boswell tells FPJ that supply is on the up to meet increasing consumption. “We have got steady demand for local product from our own terroir,” he says. “Our garlic crop is twice what it was last year and the quality has been exceptional.
“But it has been quite wet, which has been difficult because garlic likes Mediterranean growing conditions. However, we have spent money to create more glasshouses and replicate these conditions.
“Chinese garlic is always going to be present, but it is a completely different market for those who buy on price, not quality,” he continues. “The garlic types that we grow are fairly exclusive and peculiar, such as Elephant garlic and our heritage types, so we have to do our promotions. But there is a very high labour content to what we do and labour costs are up, so it is not all roses. We try to be more efficient and mechanise where we can, but it is not easy.”
The Really Garlicky Company is expecting to produce 20 tonnes of home-grown Music this year to build on its increased imports of Patagonian Purple from Argentina, up 35 per cent this season. The firm mainly supplies Waitrose in Scotland and Tesco across the UK.
Glen Allingham, director of The Really Garlicky Company, says heavy rain has made the harvest harder to navigate, but he is optimistic about this season.“We are just switching to Music now, so we will have to see how that goes,” he says. “We have had a reasonable growing season, with a good warm spell in June but heavy showers in the harvest period reaching up to 30mm in 30 minutes. As a result, we will have more staining than usual this year.
“Prices are much the same as they have been for the last two years. We did not put our prices up or down, but we are seeing higher sales this season and I think this reflects the back-to-basics mood at the moment. Consumers are eating fewer ready meals and prepared products, and instead buying fresh garlic and using it at home when they are cooking from scratch.
“Our product is different from traditional garlic and the main challenge for us as a fairly new company is to try to adapt our product to meet consumer demand. Our product is called Gourmet Garlic in the US because it has large cloves, with between four and six in a bulb, while the rest of the market is full of bulbs with much smaller cloves.
“We are trying to come up with bigger bulbs to make the offer as practical as possible.”
Both categories are facing a number of challenges, not least the EU pesticide review and the loss of many key actives, on top of mounting pressure from the retailers, the fluctuations in the exchange rate and rising costs of production and distribution.
“As an industry, we are already adapting practices to overcome loss of some herbicides,” says Tole. “Long-term sustainability is a challenge for all crops and as an industry, we must maintain viable returns to ensure onions and garlic are not replaced by easier crops.”
But the renewed emphasis on home cooking and healthy, value-for-money meals brought on by the recession is helping to highlight the versatility of both onions and garlic. The interest has, in turn, been fuelled by promotional work on onions and, to a lesser extent, on garlic.
“The recession has increased demand of onions,” says Tole. “With the combination of a return to cooking and British Onions working hard at promoting onions as an affordable, healthy vegetable with our PR agency Sputnik Communications, we have seen more onions being purchased.
“Planning is still in progress for this year’s campaign and it is still too early to confirm exactly what we are doing. However, I can confirm that we are planning more usage and recipe ideas, with some being produced by a prominent TV chef. There are some more exciting projects still being finalised, but we aim to continue a record of growing onion sales.”
The trade will have the opportunity to meet up and exchange ideas at the Onion and Carrot Conference, on November 18-19.
The garlic category, it seems, has some way to go to catch up with the promotional activities put together to support the home-grown onion offer. “As a country, little work has been done,” says Tole. “There has been some promotional work at retail level and companies such as The Garlic Farm and The Really Garlicky Company have done an excellent job at promoting UK garlic.”
So across the allium offer, onions and garlic are proving that they have established themselves as mainstream ingredients in UK kitchens. How this season will play out will depend on the weather in the next few weeks, but the major players are hopeful that - given the right conditions - this year will be a good one.
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