Jersey Royal potatoes may be one of the more enduring brands in the fresh produce sector, but the industry is not immune from competition or the overall pressure the entire fresh produce market is under.
However, recent years have seen producers make a concerted effort to take their destiny into their own hands and significant moves have been made to maintain the Jersey Royal’s position in the marketplace.
This year is certainly no different and has seen significant developments again, from competition enquiries to further consolidation. However, the sector is confident it is set to emerge on the other side stronger, more focused and even ready to expand its operations outside of its island borders.
Two years ago, efforts were made to market the entire production of Jersey Royals through one organisation, the Jersey Royal Potato Marketing Company. However, divisions began to emerge and the following year, a breakaway organisation, Jersey Quality Products, was formed by a group of growers. Despite this, JRPM continued to market around 80 per cent of the island’s production.
This season has seen further developments and it would appear the sector is back on course with its original plan. JQP has agreed to stop marketing its potatoes through its own organisation, ensuring the entire crop is now going through JRPM.
Tom Binet, managing director of JPRM said there has been reluctance in the past: “There were different views about the way forward, but we managed to maintain a positive dialogue all the way through and we’ve now reached something of a compromise. We wanted to do things rapidly, but this means our integration programme will be a little slower.”
He said the agreement sees the two principle growers in JQP coming on board with JRPM as shareholders while the remaining smaller producers will supply the firm as contract growers.
The deal means that Binet’s operation will not only be marketing 100 per cent of the Jersey Royal crop, it will also eventually own 90 per cent of the production.
Of course, the moves are all subject to the approval of the competition authorities, something which caused JRPM headaches earlier in the year when moves to bring contract production in-house ended up being blocked by the Jersey Competition Regulatory Authority. At the time around 60 per cent of the volume it marketed was its own production, with the rest provided by around seven contract growers.
“We wanted to bring them on board so that we would have total control over the production, but the competition authorities leapt on it and scuppered us,” Binet said back in February.
“It is frustrating because we’d done a huge amount of planning on it, and never thought we’d run foul of the competition laws. Our intention is still to go ahead with our plans, but it’s been an unwelcome own goal from the authorities,” he added.
However, those issues appear to be in the process of being resolved, he now says. “An investigation was launched and we were cleared of any wrong doing. They had been told that we had carried out mergers without permission.”
Binet says JPRM had hoped to be able to bring the majority of its contract production in-house this year, but the hold-up caused by the competition confusion has delayed the plans.
“We’re now establishing a dialogue with the authorities, and we’ve been in touch with the local government’s economic development department, and the chief officer has stated that he’s 100 per cent behind us, so we don’t think we’ll have any more problems with that.”
But, while things seem to be progressing smoothly on the re-organisation side, production has suffered some minor setbacks, says Binet. “In growing terms, we had very dry, good conditions throughout January and February, which was then followed by three-and-a-half weeks of bitter cold and wet weather and that’s delayed everything quite severely.”
The wet conditions has meant that lifting is unlikely to start until the Easter weekend (April 16), with volumes initially limited. “We won’t be into significant volumes until the second week of May,” says Binet. “Which is a shame because we’ll be missing out on a bit of an opportunity.”
The big fear for Jersey Royal producers is from increased competition from other early varieties, such as Cornwall, and as such, any delay is a lost sales opportunity while they have the market relatively to themselves. However, while the Jersey producers are being hampered by the conditions, they are not alone says Binet. “From what I hear, it sounds like the whole spud job is running late.”
Fortunately, the excellent planting conditions during January and February mean that, despite the later difficulties, the quality of the potatoes should not be affected.
This year will also see a greater demand for washed potatoes out of Jersey, says Tim Ward, sales manager with JRPM. “We’re still concentrating hard on product improvement, we’re doing a lot more washing at source and we’ve invested in a second high volume wash line.”
Other investments are also being made in the industry, and Binet says he is looking to open a second large packhouse which will feature two new wash lines. “We’ve identified a potential site and we’re looking to consolidate our operations into two large facilities.”
At the same time, Binet is keen to continue his plans to expand into the mainland potato sector, in a bid to boost the Jersey Royal brand.
The company is looking at major UK potato operators to act as “brand champions” for its product. Binet adds: “We’re still pursuing that agenda, and we’re in talks with a number of people, but at the moment, there’s nothing new to report.”
Meanwhile, the sector is continuing to promote and push its brand and this year will be spending around three quarters of a million pounds, says Mike Tait from Jersey Tourism, which is co-ordinating the campaign.
“We will be advertising in newspapers, consumer magazines, trade press and on television. The TV campaign will see a re-run of last year’s 10 second advert and will feature on ITV, Channels Four and Five and also on Sky.”
He says the advertising campaign is set to begin in May, which is timed well, due to the later arrival of the crop this year.
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