Like William and Kate’s wedding before it, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is set to inject some capital into the country’s economy and the marketers are giving every major UK-produced food a royal spin.
British tomatoes are no different and a product that particularly fits the bill. A crop that usually benefits from some good publicity with the annual British Tomato Week coming up (from 21 May), tomatoes are firmly on the British summer menu and, come the big royal calendar date, in full harvest.
But as you might expect from a group with such a long-standing campaign call, the British Tomato Growers’ Association (TGA) sees this summer as not just an opportunity to increase product awareness and sales, but create an on-going consciousness in consumers’ minds. “Our industry needs to keep on shouting about the good it does regardless of what event is happening,” says the TGA’s technical officer Dr Phil Morley.
“People will calm down on the British push after the Jubilee and the Olympics this summer have passed, but it is up to growers to take advantage of the momentum.
“We need to make the most of our Britishness, but for future years. Britishness means local, minimum food miles, maximum freshness and ultimately future food security. These benefits and issues will not go away.”
REASONS FOR OPTIMISM
As the tomato industry leads up to the big push and peak-production time in June and July, optimism is high, despite an almost false start to the season. A combination of early sowing dates by some growers and two periods of good weather in January and March brought the tomato season forward. Some parts of the country started as much as three weeks early in March. Evesham Vale Growers’ crop made it onto supermarket shelves by the first week of March. “Production has continued at a good pace and we could do with some sun to drive demand,” says EVG commercial director David Shepherd. “I thought with the onset of a hosepipe ban we would be in for a good summer, but it has rained every day since.”
Richard Marsh, manager, supply planning and grower relations for Greenery UK, says while crops continue to look well, they have all slowed in development and are bulking up due to cooler wetter weather. “This should provide good volumes as the season builds into the key summer months of June, July and August,” he adds. “Good weather in late March and early April created a healthy demand over the initial overlap of the seasons.”
Budgens launched its English tomato season six weeks ahead of usual with deliveries of classic round English tomatoes and on-the-vine Elegance tomatoes to all of its stores across the country. “We anticipate an extended season, through to October,” says Budgens head of trading operations, Kenton Burchell. “Once again we will be supporting English growers with our commitment to being ‘famous for fresh’, with our English tomatoes coming from our supplier partner IVG White in Evesham.”
Early plantings were in place this year to make sure supermarkets had their coveted first-of-the-season offerings. “There’s often a big excitement around the new tomato season and supermarkets like drumming up that feeling, which gives the industry a boost,” says Morley. “Waitrose had a very early start this year and had tomatoes on the shelves before the end of February. Pretty near all of the supermarkets will have British tomatoes in stock by now.”
IMPORTS
But volume is certainly not due to pick up until June and with a recent dull patch of weather overshadowing Easter and most of spring, imported produce will be picking up the shortfall on a crop low on self-sufficiency.
There are a few more developments coming up in the UK that will provide some extra volume over the next couple of years, insists Morley, who describes importing tomatoes from Europe as a “necessary love affair”. “We do need to look at the bigger picture here though,” he says on the subject of importing tomatoes throughout the year and especially during the winter. “There are many arguments revolving around the carbon footprint of British tomatoes being higher because of the energy used, but we have to think about all the other issues involved. Water security is becoming critical in southern Europe even now. How long is trucking fresh produce through Spain to the UK going to be desirable?
“Part of the reason we don’t grow more tomatoes in this country or have more glasshouses is because of our cheap-food culture. I’m sure many tomato growers would extend their crops if they had commitment from the customer, but people are used to paying a cheap price and this is where product from abroad with lower input costs will succeed.”
It takes £1 million per hectare to start up a glasshouse in the UK and returns are seen in the next 10 years, so it’s not a quick-return investment by any means.
SUSTAINABILITY
But growers are mostly positive about this season and the ones that will follow. The future of the industry lies in producing incredible product through sustainable means, says Marsh. “We are seeing very robust interest in our British supply across our customer base and they are putting more focus on local in line with customer demand.”
The Jubilee will be a platform for a really good summer, with more money achieved for product and therefore more money to reinvest in British horticulture, hopes Morley. “Through events like the royal wedding, the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, consumers will start to ask why British tomatoes are not on the shelves and in the end consumers will be fighting our corner. Asking for British will become the norm.” -
No comments yet