The impact of the supermarket price war has also had an impact on the Subway sandwich.
Sarah Keane, senior purchasing manager for produce at EIPC, the produce purchasing arm for Subway franchises, tells FPJ that the business is tasked with buying loose round tomatoes that are suitable for slicing, size, firmness and shelf life.
But, she says: “The impact of the supermarket price wars has been quite significant, as low prices paid to the growers for loose round tomatoes has led to less growers producing loose round tomatoes, especially in the Netherlands.
“The growers are also now opting for choice for varieties that produce a lot of kilos to increase their returns.This ultimately has an impact on quality, shelf life, firmness and on price.Because there are less growers of round tomatoes this year in the Netherlands, the daily market price is expected to be high – this is the biggest impact that we see.”
As for the future of the UK tomato industry, the newly-appointed chairman of the British Tomato Growers’ Assocation, Patrick Harte, calls it both “challenging and exciting”, but says he hopes to see the industry “embrace it with our usual positivity and innovation”.
Harte, who is also general manager at Cornerways Nursery, which signed a marketing deal with glasshouse giant Thanet Earth at the end of 2015, adds: “As with most industries within fresh produce, the market has been tough, pricing continues to be a pressure point, and the introduction of the National Living Wage also poses a challenge.
“The UK tomato industry has always faced challenges, such as the largest amount of imports that enter the UK market, with around 80 per cent of our fresh tomatoes in the UK coming from abroad. Instead of living with these challenges, the industry has always sought to move forward and overcome these challenges.”
Harte cites work being done to grow newer, premium varieties to “better drive and develop the category” and notes that UK production has been gradually moving away from the more commoditised round tomato – sought by the likes of EIPC – into premium varieties, with an increasing focus on selling on-the-vine products or premium baby plum tomatoes. We can differentiate on the taste of our product offer and by really focusing on this we have created successful businesses,” he says.
On the weather front, EIPC has been aided by good growing conditions in two of its key sourcing markets, Spain and Morocco. And Keane notes that the Dutch growing season has started “really smoothly”, thanks to plenty of sun and high temperatures for the time of the year.
Back in Britain, meanwhile, tomato firms are beginning to invest in new lighting technology to allow the UK to move from its traditional March to November production period to an all-year production model. Automation is an area that continues to be a focus, Harte tells FPJ, and investment and research is being conducted to develop this technology.
Harte concudes: “As I said, the climate is tough, and I hope that this changes in the longer term, but while this happens, we will all continue to focus on driving the innovation into the industry that has moved us forward. I hope for the longer term we will be able to talk about more and more tomatoes being produced in the UK. There is certainly the appetite to do so.”
