The British Tomato Growers’ Association’s (TGA) British Tomato Week finally got possibly the two most troublesome variables in the fresh produce industry - the weather and the multiples - to work side by side for this year’s week of activities.
From 17-23 June, the British tomato industry saw the sun hit festivities for the first time in years and had support from various multiples throughout the country, through in-store tasting and the like.
Aptly for British industry, the poor winter season on the continent has highlighted home-grown product’s credentials, although the cool weather throughout spring delayed the first crop.
“The season was eagerly anticipated,” says TGA spokesperson Gerry Hayman. “Retailers are realising the opportunities available in promoting the British crop for its flavour, food safety regulations and consistency.
“We did have particular problems with imported product over the winter, but now supply is back to normal.”
Record volumes were harvested following Tomato Week and demand for British product continued past the week’s activities, but because there was an abundance of volume on the market, prices have been low.
“As ever, demand does not translate to high prices from the retailers,” claims Hayman. “Wholesale prices have been very strong, but as we know they only handle some 20 per cent of the market.”
But consumers seem to be coming round to the idea of paying the price food is worth and if the attention British Tomato Week received and the record number of hits its website achieved are anything to go by, it’s set to continue.
From one record to another, the Watercress Festival welcomed 2,000 more visitors than last time this year on 16 June - proof again that consumers are really buying into regional or local food trends.
Although the weather was not on organiser the Watercress Alliance’s side, the Hampshire watercress industry and the public came out to celebrate the first flush of the British watercress season, as growers gathered in the first seedlings of the near 52-week production.
The season is going well, according to the Watercress Alliance - which, formed of The Watercress Company, Bakkavör and Vitacress, represents the majority of the watercress market in the UK. Linking the product to cancer-fighting properties through research has driven sales, and growth from 2000-01 has been steady each year at five to 10 per cent.
The watercress industry is aware that it can never go back to the volumes produced and the size of production before railfreight was abandoned in the 1950s, but the advent of the supermarket saved the industry and now watercress accounts for no less than 10 per cent of the £500 million-worth bagged salads category at retail.
“It has been 50 years since the last watercress bed was built in this country and we are only sustaining ourselves by increasing yield, quality of product and turning beds quickly,” says Steve Rothwell, group production and technical director at Vitacress. “It is a very draconian situation in the UK. There are several loops you have to jump through to get planning permission to build a new farm. Vitacress has just spent seven years of fighting the system to build a new bed in Dorset for it all to come to nothing. It has cost £80,000 on consultant and impact assessments. Natural England was ‘concerned’. But it is a familiar tale and recently The Watercress Company has been turned down in a similar way.”
This kind of attitude to horticulture in the UK and the need to satisfy demand for a popular product has forced such companies to look abroad for development sites, when originally Spanish and Portuguese beds were used only to make up winter supply.
“It is not an issue in Europe,” continues Rothwell. “Growers are even given government grants and supported. In the UK there is a huge amount of negativity to get through.
“We could sell more watercress in the UK, but we have to pay hard-earned revenue to fund research and PR. The government should help instead of increasing the tax the industry faces and burdening the growers.”
BALL BETS ON BARBECUE SUMMER FINALLY MATERIALISING IN 2010
Simon Ball, managing director at UK freshly prepared salad supplier Hazeldene, hopes for a scorching summer season in the UK after a difficult winter for the industry.
After the long winter, many of us thought summer would never arrive. Thankfully it has and we are well placed to strengthen our position as a leading supplier of fresh leafy salads to our customers.
Since late April, we have seen a significant increase in sales levels across our customer base and this is reflected in recent Kantar Worldpanel data, showing the bagged salad category remains in strong growth at 8.6 per cent (52 w/e to 18 April).
The prospect of a bumper summer, fuelled by the inevitable World Cup barbecue season, is set to boost growth for us, which we are all very excited about. It is also clear that the prepared salad market is in good shape ahead of the key summer season, with major supermarket groups enjoying strong growth, despite one of the coldest winter seasons on record. Some are into double digits, which for a mature, high penetration category like bagged salads, is bucking many of the recession-led trends, such the rise in cooking from scratch.
The gloomy views ahead of the recent recession suggested a wholesale reversion to wholehead products, which simply hasn’t happened. This is positive news for the industry as it shows that consumer appetite for low waste, great tasting leaf products and convenient meal solutions, has not been affected.
At Hazeldene, we are working closely with all our customers to ensure our products are tailored towards their business needs. This is something we are working hard to deliver, some of which will arrive as early as summer 2010. In April this year, we invited a number of key business-to-business customers to our Spanish crop trials, where we looked at ways of enhancing the leaf offer within their products. Some of our customers spent a little longer than originally planned, following the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull volcano - unfortunately coinciding with our trials. However after what seemed like an outtake from Planes, Trains & Automobiles, all of our customers got home eventually.
So far, indications are that the UK crop is looking good and having just about completed the migration from imported to UK sourced products, we can now reflect on what was possibly one of the most difficult winter season’s supply in memory. Although, on a plus side, we were able to source our products within Europe instead of America, despite the weather issues.
While it is quickly forgotten by many and ongoing supply is taken as a given, the supply chain effort in ensuring the product was available is not to be underestimated and has certainly provided some clear direction for the next winter season. Our own operation, based near Murcia in Spain, proved invaluable through the winter season, giving us “on the ground” reports on availability, as well as the weather. At times it felt as though Lancashire had moved to southern Spain!
So, as we now embark on the summer 2010 season, I am confident that we will finally see that barbecue summer everyone has been predicting for the last couple of years.
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