It’s easy to just associate the Kent region with its long-standing history of growing apples and pears, strawberries, raspberries, plums and cherries, but if you travel around the south-eastern area it is clear that its varied soil types and plains are fit for all manner of uses. In fact, more than 1,440 sq miles make up Kent, starting on the borders of the River Thames and reaching as far as the North Sea, the Straits of Dover and the English Channel. The region lends itself well to almost anything in the horticultural world, with an average of more than 200 hours of sunlight a month during the summer and several different microclimates created by areas like the Isle of Thanet and the Isle of Grain.
With all this going for the region, as well as a thriving top-fruit and soft-fruit industry, it is understandable that businesses are migrating to the area to take advantage of its many possibilities. The 51-hectare salad glasshouse project Thanet Earth on the Isle of Thanet has been the biggest cash injection into the local economy of late, but Sussex-based leafy salad producer Langmead Farms has also invested in Kent over the last three years with the takeover of the old Bomfords business in Longfield, continuing to produce spring onions and integrating baby leaf salad into the mix. Alongside this, fresh produce businesses that are well established in the area are coming into their own and innovating to stay ahead.
Many possibilities
Walking around Watt Farms’ packhouse with an enthusiastic Joe Cottingham, it’s clear to see variety is the spice of life at this 1,200-acre Orpington-based farm. Cottingham started his working life as a grower on the family-run farm owned by husband-and-wife team Mike and Avril Gray 11 years ago and has now been a partner of the firm for two years, overseeing the 18,000 sq ft packhouse, which takes produce from six farm sites in Kent and a farm in Essex, as well as the farm’s Asda account.
The list of products that Watts Farms produces seems endless, with herbs, leafy lettuce, broad beans, runner beans, what the company refers to as baby leaf brassicas and soya beans, as well as more exotic, relatively new offers such as chillies and pak choi, all going through the packhouse. Cottingham prides himself on finding the point of difference in the marketplace and then having a go at growing it in Kent. Last year, the company saw its Kent-grown edamame beans make their way into Asda, a supermarket that the farmer praises openly for its directness.
“The fact that our product is British is the most important point and we work on the farms to extend the season and get it on the shelves as long as possible,” says Cottingham. “Asda is getting behind the Kent brand and this has given us the ability to look at new products that have not been grown in the UK before. Kent asparagus has been very popular and it has been packaged under the Watts Farms brand. For me, the British-grown pull is the bigger picture and we have to make the most of our geographical range.”
Product trials do not always work out for the best, of course, and Cottingham is all too aware of the abilities of Kenya’s legume production, for one. But the farm’s success stories this year have come in the shape of its Kent basil and chilli pepper offer.
Watts Farms has been harvesting basil, which is very prone to chill damage and needs a good deal of irrigation and heat, for just over two months so far this season and supplies mainly Asda, wholesalers and directly to London restaurants with the sought-after product. “It is chilled, graded and packed within two hours on site,” says Cottingham. “We supply the same quality to all our customers no matter what the sector, but change the bunch sizes according to what they want. We have produced and packed open-field dill for 10 years now, packing 500-600kg a week and cutting every day. We produce five to six different varieties of mint in order to extend the season.”
Jumbo onions, sometimes labelled continental onions, are leading the way for Langmead Farms further inland over in Longfield. This area of Kent is one of the lowest risk areas for mildew due to the dry climate and has a long history of onion production. Onions remain the Langmead Farms site’s main money-maker and is combined in rotation with peas grown for animal feed and cereals, says the company’s assistant product manager George Gagg. “Jumbo onions are getting very popular and sales have doubled over the last year,” he says. “We have been developing them for the last couple of years and have been working on keeping them on the shelf longer. The trick on such a small crop is good continuity. The product goes out to multiples, local depots and local stores. This is our second season of harvesting the jumbo onions, but there’s safety in numbers and we are building our crops up. We also grow baby leaf spinach, red chard and rocket, and grow over-wintering onions, as well as legumes to fix the nitrogen in the soil.”
Safety in numbers
Langmead Farms recognised the potential in Kent when it had the opportunity to buy into the area with the 1,200 ha ex-Bomfords farms in North Kent. “The onion-growing and packing infrastructure is here,” says Gagg. “We are based around the Isle of Grain, which has one of the driest microclimates in England and is good for later operations. The obvious advantage that comes with farming in Kent is the low rainfall and therefore disease resistance is less of an issue than elsewhere. We are also very close to London and our product can be labelled as local, which pleases the supermarkets.”
Thanet Earth is now in its second year of production and at around £100 million, the facility was no small investment in the area. And as communications manager Judy Whittaker puts it, “we’re here for the long term”. The glasshouse site, which grows tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers for the major multiples, has created hundreds of jobs in an area of high unemployment, and the Fresca Group believes that it’s putting Thanet on the map. “We’ve been busy on initiatives such as environmental development, restoring 16 ha to calcareous chalk grassland on the site and planting in excess of 15,000 trees and shrubs so far to build biodiversity on the site and to ensure we have a positive impact on the flora and fauna,” adds Whittaker, who is adamant that the locals are behind the project.
Whether the community is pleased by the project or not, Thanet has provided the perfect place for the glasshouses and makes long-term sense for the local economy. “Geography is a really important factor in our success for a number of reasons,” says Whittaker. “We wanted to be close to our market and the densely populated South East corner of the country certainly provides us with much more demand than we can satisfy - always a good position to be in. We can meet customer requirements such as late orders very quickly, while the food miles of our glasshouse crops are minimal. One of our parent companies, Fresca Group, is based at Paddock Wood, so this part of the world is one we know well. In addition to this, our proximity to the ports of the South East means that we can build and maintain a strong import side to our business alongside our UK production.”
However, each greenhouse is unique in its performance and the conditions in Thanet are quite different to most other glasshouse locations both in the UK and overseas, so it can be difficult to predict peaks, troughs and yield. “We expect it will take years of experience to hone the accuracy, particularly as it’s so weather and light dependent,” explains Whittaker. “However, the plants are growing with vigour and the crops are, as expected, really good and consistent in producing excellent flavour, appearance and shelf life.
“We have eight varieties of tomatoes growing at the moment, with a similar number planned for production through the winter months too, as we embark on another season of lit winter production to build on the success of last year.”
So far, three of the permitted seven greenhouse plots at Thanet Earth have been constructed, along with the state-of-the-art packhouse. The groundworks and main infrastructure are all in place for expansion, but the remaining plots are dependent on grower investment. A development that has been attributed to the recession, this process has been slow. Growers are expected to purchase a plot as a stake in the business and construct their own greenhouse. “We expect that 2011 will see some developments in this area on our site,” adds Whittaker.
Making the best of it
What’s good for one business can be another’s curse and the lack of rainfall in Kent is causing severe problems for brassica growers in the area. Brian Stone, farm manager at Mackays Court Farm in Rochester, is worried that his area will have to re-evaluate which crops are better for the changing weather and soil types. “This is the second dry year that it has been dry all the time and it has been costly to irrigate,” says Stone, who now runs three reservoirs on the farm’s site. “The lack of rain affects the head of the broccoli and when we harvest we have to get the heat out of the crop very quickly or else they look awful. It just doesn’t look like it is going to be a sustainable crop in this area if the weather continues to change like this.”
Traditionally, Mackays Court Farm, which is run by the Castle family with a long-standing horticultural background dating back to 1914, grew early potatoes, spring greens and cauliflower. The company started to grow broccoli spears in the 1990s, with 150 acres of production, but then abandoned the crop only to take it up again five years ago due to market demand. “We have grown spring greens for the last 40 years, but no one wants them anymore,” Stone continues. “There are just no returns. Now we do very well on sweetheart cabbage, which we are in the third year of producing on 40 acres, and there is a demand for winter kale. The mix is not quite right for the way the weather is going though; something needs to be sorted out.
“Our biggest challenge is what to grow next. We will obviously look to see what people want on their plates, but we have to consider the changing climate. Our strength is producing early and late, but the summers are getting hotter and the winters colder; soon there will be no in-between.”
Cauliflower and potato grower Geoff Philpott of G G Philpott & Son agrees that different regions need to develop crops that are well suited to the climate to survive. “We are rather in limbo geographically and our costs are greater to reach some of the depots,” he says. “Labour is more difficult to get hold of as cutting cauliflower is a specialised job and the costs are becoming too much.”
Philpott has been part of an independent breeding programme for the last 28 years and believes that developing a product fit for the future is the answer. “We have been looking into Romanesco as they are popular, but they cost more to produce and are more prone to fungal diseases,” he says. “We have got to persuade consumers that cauliflower is attractive, health and taste-wise.”
In keeping with the trend throughout the UK, financial returns from the supermarkets have been the same for the last four or so years and it has been growers that have had to diversify and add value where they can.
“All the winter cauliflower grown in the UK that went to supermarkets this season was at a loss to the grower,” says Philpott, who supplies the majority of his crop to what he calls the “free” market - wholesalers and exporters. “It costs 50p per head to get a cauliflower to market and then it is sold under cost price. The most disastrous thing is the after care in store in some of the supermarkets. Sometimes it’s a case of pile it high and sell it cheap. Cauliflower is very underrated and is a great source of many micronutrients.”
Grower and supplier AV Produce farms from a 200-acre farm site in Swanley and decided after the 2007 flooding that it had too many eggs in the Lincolnshire basket and concentrated on injecting more variety into Kent. The farm now grows Savoy cabbages, Little Gem lettuce, spring onions, kale, broccoli and courgettes, with the latest addition of mini yellow courgettes. “We need to reinvest then extend the season and produce more tonnes per acre,” says AV’s general manager Paul Graves.
“We need to make better use of water in the way of irrigation. Also, there is a growing population of pigeons that are looking anywhere for food and causing damage. We are urban farmers and it is all about balance.
“Water, energy and costing are all challenges in this area. The Vinson family [who own AV Produce] have tried every product on this land and has found crops that suit them and their customers. You have to move with the times.”
BERRY GARDENS UPS RASPS SHARE
Tonbridge-based Berry Gardens expects to sell 20 per cent more British raspberries than last year by the end of the season, says managing director Nick Marston.
The company’s raspberry production area is up and the majority grown is now Driscoll’s Maravilla together with some Cardinal and Pacifica. The firm’s share of UK raspberry production is now more than 50 per cent and this is estimated to rise to 75 per cent in August and September, when the production of raspberries from Driscoll primocane varieties prevails.
“The picture is very similar to strawberries except that the delay to the start of the raspberry season is more like two weeks,” says Marston. “We have sold fewer raspberries to 10 July than last year but pleasingly, the value of those sales has risen.”
ON THE PROMOTIONAL TRAIL WITH COLLETT
Paddock Wood-based English top-fruit marketing specialist Norman Collett deals with produce largely grown in Kent by the producer organisation Mid Kent Growers Ltd, together with several independent growers. Here, business development manager Sarah Calcutt fills FPJ in on the season and the company’s promotional plans for Rubens.
How is the coming season for top fruit looking? What kind of quality and yields are you expecting?
Overall, we are looking at a very similar season to last year in terms of volumes and quality is excellent with great skin finish, particularly on Conference pears. Some varieties are looking at slightly reduced volumes, especially Braeburn, which will not see quite the large leap in volume from young orchards as expected. The season, of course, is going to have its challenges; with costs rising, it will be hard to meet the customers’ expectations of cheap food.
When is the Rubens media campaign for Hallowe’en going to launch and what does it entail?
We have three campaigns running this year; the Hallowe’en one will be across a range of trade, national and regional publications. We want to get the message across to parents that a lovely sweet, crunchy Rubens apple is a far healthier alternative to the sugar and additive laden sweets associated with trick or treating on 31 October. We also make a few suggestions for traditional Hallowe’en games that can be played with Rubens - apple bobbing and toffee apples, of course, but how about burying Rubens in cornflour as an alternative to wet apple bobbing and go ghostly white instead?
This campaign will be running from mid-October onwards with several monthlies running our piece and images as main editorial, which is really exciting. We have excellent regional coverage as well, the KOS group in particular has been very good about raising the profile of Rubens as only grown in Kent.
Our other campaigns are promoting two apples a day as a way to lower cholesterol - there has been some excellent research conducted by the ISAFRUIT project, indicating excellent results in lowering cholesterol by up to 10 per cent. We are also launching a baby, toddler and mother programme called The Apple of my Eye, about the nutritional benefits of apples to children during the weaning and early years period, as well as for teething toddlers.
How do you think businesses will have to diversify to survive or become sustainable in Kent in the future?
Kentish people are fiercely loyal to the county; this creates a distinct advantage when helping local consumers to become aware of what is grown on their doorstep.
For the future, we think that all businesses should examine every opportunity to make profit. Very few enterprises will produce the same product forever. Why should farming be any different?
PRODUCED IN KENT HELPS NEW BUSINESSES ON THEIR WAY
The industry must always be on the look-out for new opportunities, be they new growing methods or new varieties, writes Julie Monkman, manager of regional food group Produced in Kent, which was established in 2005. Of course, the polytunnel debate continues to be highly controversial in Kent, but I would urge the larger growers to look again at their local markets in addition to large-scale supply to supermarkets and other multiples.
There is a growing movement towards buying locally and supporting local businesses, and promoting this is another key part of what we do.
Produced in Kent’s focus and aims have been more or less constant for the last 10 years, but since the joint venture partnership between Kent County Council and Hadlow College in April 2008, we have a formal strategic plan for the organisation that has given us a better focus, has allowed our brand to grow and achieve recognition and ultimately, helped many more producers in the county to prosper.
We don’t discriminate at all on the type or size of business and we have some of the largest fresh produce companies in the county in our membership - although I would say that the smaller producers benefit the most from the business advice and support we are able to provide. We recently launched a publication called The Producers Handbook, which we have set up as a bible of business support in one place. It has been written to assist producers in setting up a new business or developing an existing business and is written in a straightforward, easy to understand way. In addition to this, the handbook signposts organisations that can help businesses when we are unable to provide advice ourselves. We believe this type of business support is a first in the country and we are convinced that producers in Kent will be one step ahead of their competitors through their membership of Produced in Kent.
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