The crossover between the English and Spanish lettuce and baby leaf season went particularly easily, with suppliers moving to mainly Spanish product by the end of November.
In terms of availability, the sector enjoyed a smooth transition from the UK to the European season. Unseasonably hot weather in Spain, however, across October and November led to a couple of challenges around raw material quality but insiders say that they are now firmly back on track.
Like many UK lettuce and baby leaf suppliers, one of the UK’s leading specialists in ready-to-eat leafy salads Hazeldene started to import the majority of crops from Spain, Italy, France and Greece, from the week commencing November 26.
The mood is definitely upbeat. Simon Ball, managing director of Hazeldene, says: “As a result of new business wins, we have achieved record sales across the last quarter, which is obviously something that as a team we are incredibly proud of.
“Our main challenges are very much the same as those that all our industry peers will also be facing. However, I am confident that the team we have put together and developed in conjunction with the investment that we have made in our facility, our procurement strategy and that we continue to make in our people, has developed a robustness about our business that we feel stands us in good stead and we enter the New Year with a great deal of excitement.”
Looking ahead, Hazeldene will launch into a new sector of the market in February 2010, adding a new dynamic to its business proposition. “We have been working on this project across the last 12 months and are confident that it is something that will add a great deal of value to both new and existing customers alike,” reveals Ball.
Despite a decidedly unpredictable 2009 in weather terms and an equally unstable economic environment, consumers have still been keen to buy into bagged salads, resulting in a 4.7 per cent sales growth for the category. This increased demand was made up of people making the most of the warm spells when they did arrive - whether at home or on ‘staycation’, as well as enjoying more regular out-of-home dining. This was demonstrated by strong growth across the foodservice side of the category, with Florette especially enjoying a strong share in this growth.
Florette saw a 26 per cent uplift in its number-one bagged salad Crispy, showing that consumers are sticking to familiar favourites during tough trading conditions.
“As we draw to a close in 2009 and look ahead to 2010, the one thing that we can be certain of is that it is an exciting time for the salad category,” says Sandy Sewell, commercial director of Florette UK. “With the UK set to emerge from recession, consumer spending could also rise - added to this, the staycation trend of 2009 is also set to continue into 2010. In 2010, Florette will once again be investing in the brand, through major TV advertising and a consumer press campaign, increasing our digital capabilities, all alongside ongoing new product development, which will continue to drive brand growth in 2010.”
The UK tomato sector has been given a bit of a mixed bag this year, but the last quarter has left growers on a high. On a positive note, energy costs have come down and a shortage of product on the market at the beginning of the year meant decent returns. Summer brought with it poor weather and low demand, whereas autumn saw a fantastic crop, but a surplus of Spanish fruit.
September and October were good months for UK tomato growers, as mild weather encouraged demand and Spanish product was not arriving on the shores in any great volume. Yields were down and prices were up, which means that many tomato growers will follow the same planting scheme as last year.
British tomato supply has collapsed over the last three weeks and now growers will follow Spanish weather patterns very closely. If there is a repeat of last year in Spain, when the weather dropped, it will mean a good start for UK growers. “We are looking forward to fighting another day,” says one insider.
As the tomato industry rests over the winter period, it will be looking for sustainable ways to solve its main problems - pests and disease.
“We will be looking at how we can prevent the South American tomato moth invading our crops in the UK,” says Gerry Hayman, chairman of the British Tomato Growers’ Association (TGA). “We haven’t had any cases affect the crop as yet, though it has been detected in the crates and packaging that comes back into the country at the packhouses. We are hopeful we can keep it out, with pheromone traps or the like.
“The key point to this is that we will do everything we can to fight this problem with natural, biological control rather than chemicals.”
The UK salad industry also welcomed the addition of Thanet Earth in Kent to the category this year. Some 250 tonnes of peppers and tomatoes and more than 500,000 cucumbers a week under production so far have attributed to a substantial increase to domestic production.
With the addition of Thanet Earth, the UK now produces a fifth of domestic consumption and tomato production is set to rise further in 2010 with plans for Cornerways Nursery in East Anglia and Red Roofs Nursery, in Cottingham, near Hull, to increase their production under glass. Furthermore, Evesham Vale Growers in the Midlands is in the process of increasing its 26 acres of tomatoes under glass with a new 12a facility, which will be producing speciality tomatoes for the spring season next year.
Peppers are also coming into the spotlight and product from Israel coming into the UK along with Spanish product is becoming more innovative with high-vitamin ACE peppers and sweet green pepper Evergreen. “This is now the time for peppers,” says one insider. “The category will really open up in the next five years.”
ISRAELI TOMATO SPECIALITY IN STORE
We have tried very hard over the last two years to find new speciality tomato varieties with Agrexco to please consumers in the UK, says Michael Ofran, director for research and development at Agrexco’s R&D centre Teva Tari.
We are currently screening more than 100 varieties of different shapes and colours to see which are better than the other ones. Orange tomatoes have proved very popular, as have traditional reds and the mini Kumato types.
We tend to send samples of new varieties to the UK supermarkets and they generally trial them for three months. Then if we receive some interest we will put the product into commercial production and large volumes can be ready for the next season.
Our Pink Martini tomato, which is a light pink cocktail tomato, went into commercial production recently because of interest from Waitrose. We took a risk; Waitrose took a risk. But winter came and the frosts meant the crop was not quite what it should be. However, Waitrose was fantastic and we received a lot of support.
With new varieties, it is easy to fail in the short term. We continue with the varieties that big seed companies would throw away and then through hard work we are the first to introduce them.
We look around the world for the right tomatoes and for that point of difference that retailers want. It is interesting to see what the large seed companies are not interested in because they do not believe that it will be commercial, when it can exist as part of a niche.
We are now working with a few chefs in Israel to see what kind of recipes work well with each of the tomatoes. Piccolo is a variety you cannot break, as consumers love it, but the seeds are expensive. We are looking at alternatives, but nothing has caught the consumer’s eye as much. We send a lot of yellow plum tomatoes to Tesco, as well as a mixed pack of baby orange cherry and baby red plum types. We are continuing to try to introduce a new yellow type, but the product is too soft and the orange type generally tastes much better.
Sainsbury’s and The Co-operative are buyers of our speciality tomatoes and we produce 300 tonnes a year of yellow and orange cherry tomatoes, yellow and red elongated fruit, and red plum, of which we sent 200t to the UK last year.
The UK is and always has been an important market but, as a result of sterling being so close to the euro, we are sending more to Scandinavia. The UK market is particularly demanding because of all the standards we have to work to, so it makes it an expensive business.
But we have our supportive customers that are willing to pay for quality. At the moment, we are sending two tonnes a week of speciality tomatoes to The Co-operative, and Sainsbury’s and Tesco receive our red and orange baby plum tomatoes.
The main challenge we have is to achieve the right taste. We would like to bring the same great taste of speciality tomatoes to the round tomatoes we produce. It is difficult to achieve the right brix level and high yields, but we are working on it.
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