Bad publicity has contributed to a poor trading period for the leafy salads market, the British Leafy Salads Association revealed on Wednesday.
“The industry has stalled and we’ve lost market share,” BLSA chairman David Piccaver told FPJ at the association’s conference, in Peterborough.
“The amount of hostile press we have received has to be a concern to us and we have got to change that perception. It will be difficult and it will take time,” he said.
Piccaver, of JE Piccaver, said the slowdown in bagged salads sales has snowballed since the publication of Felicity Lawrence’s controversial book Not On The Label, in 2004.
TNS Worldpanel figures back up his view. The bagged salads market enjoyed a healthy value increase and volume sales grew by around eight per cent in 2004-05. However, during the latest year (2005-06), volume sales were up by 2.6 per cent, but value growth ground to a halt.
Ed Garner of TNS said: “[The volume increase] sounds good, but the value has only gone up by 1.3 per cent, which is behind inflation… prices have dropped and there is a great increase in promotions. I think [bad publicity] has not helped. People buying these products are quite foodie and a story like that will disproportionately affect them.”
Piccaver said the conference’s record attendance said “a lot about the concerns we’ve got in our industry. It’s time to respond in defence of the excellent products we grow,” he added.
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