Summer would not be complete without the sight of salads stained with vivid red beetroot juice. Yet overall sales are down on last year at a time when the vegetable is enjoying a renaissance.
Axgro Foods and G’s are both developing new beetroot products, underlining the potential that producers see in the market. As yet, the companies cannot comment on what form the products will take, but G’s says its new range will “further develop the category, making it accessible to even more shoppers.”
Seed supplier Sakata is also developing a new golden beet with an enhanced deep orange colour and improved uniformity of root size. A spokesman explains that it is already proving popular in trials. “This new variety is expected to go commercial in the next couple of years,” he adds.
In recent years beetroot has hit the headlines as an excellent source of vitamins, but despite the positive press and a raft of chefs lining up to extol the virtues of cooking with it, sales have declined, figures from Kantar Worldpanel show.
Compared to 2011, sales of processed beetroot have decreased by 7.7 per cent, while sales of fresh have dropped by 7.5 per cent. Volume sales of processed beetroot have declined by 5.9 per cent but, interestingly, those of fresh have grown by one per cent.
Although overall the sales picture looks bleak, there are pockets of hope for the root vegetable’s future. Mike Higson, of Greens of Soham, says sales of fresh and bunched beetroot have been driving the market, while bottled beets have been in decline.
Supermarket chain Waitrose reports that its sales of raw and bunched beetroot are up seven per cent compared to last year and baby beetroot is up by 4.6 per cent. And at G’s, organic beetroot sales have held up “better than most other organic crops, which have seen declines since the onset and further deepening of the recession,” according to marketing director Anthony Gardiner.
Gardiner adds that while overall beetroot volumes have been relatively flat over the past year, they had seen significantly increased demand through late May and early June, with the Jubilee and improved weather. Higson says his company has increased sales of its crop year on year for the past four years, adding there are many positive developments happening in the market, especially the increase in new beetroot-based products.
“[There is] encouraging health research from many labs around the world and latterly sport stamina effects are also being reported, raising market demand,” he says. “[Also] new and novel products are growing market share, such as flavoured baby beets, juice shots and crisps.”
James White Drinks has added a new energy shot drink, called Beet It Sport, to its range, with the athletic market in mind. It already produces Beet It organic drinks but the new stamina shots, sourced from beetroot grown in East Anglia, are an example of the new markets opening up to the produce.
Former banker turned food entrepreneur Charlotte Knight, who recently launched a new brand of gourmet dip called G’NOSH, says the reason she included a beetroot product is also due to its health benefits as well as taste.
“These days people are so much more in tune with maintaining a balanced diet and are aware of what they are putting into their bodies, so beetroot, with all of its health benefits, taps straight into this approach to eating,” she adds. “This root vegetable that might once have been thought of as ‘scary’ to prepare or use in any way other than the classic 70s pickled version, is now much more accessible. People have caught on to how many different ways beetroot can be used too - the colour alone makes it really fun to cook with.” -
No comments yet