These are sweet times for UK sweetcorn. Sales and penetration have grown rapidly over the past decade, reaching a point where one third of households now buy the product at least once a year. But although that figure is still well below other markets such as the United States, there is now genuine optimism that the vegetable can carve a much bigger share for itself.
A wet start to the year initially dampened optimism, but with the market now largely back on track producers are predicting a high quality and excellent tasting crop to tempt consumers’ palates from August onwards.
Key to getting more shoppers buying into the category could be NPD, and Barfoots of Botley is leading the charge by introducing eight new varieties from August, numbered Bob 1 to
Bob 8. The eight were selected from exhaustive trials involving some 600 varieties, but managing director Graham Young believes the pay off will be worth it. “They have thinner pericarps that don’t get stuck in teeth, but keep its milky savoury quality and a thinner barrel and kernel size.”
In one swoop the new varieties would appear to tackle some of the biggest challenges that have held back sweetcorn sales - notably the desire for a product that doesn’t stick in teeth and one that retains the savoury sweetness that consumers are looking for. The benefits of the new varieties will be transmitted to consumers through on-pack information, and although Young won’t put a figure on sales predictions, he says the company has high hopes for the development of the premium tier. “It means better margins for everyone, including the grower and retailer. And consumers also like to indulge themselves with premium products.”
Not that producing the new varieties was an easy task. They are particularly easy to damage during the harvesting and processing phases, and with lower yields the production process means they are 20 per cent more costly to produce than standard varieties.
Much of the recent category growth has come through families with young children, who find that their kids will eat sweetcorn where they would normally stick their noses up at veg. That group has the highest repeat purchase, particularly with parents keen to get their children eating more healthily. That gives the product a key marketing advantage, according to Hamish Anderson, group marketing director at Greyfriars. “Sweetcorn is a great veg that you can give your children and they will eat it,” he says. “It’s also fantastic in barbecues, and people know it’s best eaten as fresh as possible.”
Children and barbecues are seen as crucial in attempts to get household buy-in up from the current 34 per cent to 50 per cent, Young says. Recent hot weather has boosted sales of a wide range of products from salad to meats, and UK sweetcorn suppliers will be keeping fingers crossed that the prolonged spell of sunshine continues into August and September.
Currently, the impetus for marketing is being driven by the companies themselves in the absence of a generic sweetcorn promotion. S&A Produce (UK) is working closely with retail customers to highlight UK seasonality in store, says commercial director Daniel Martin. Barfoots has also been particularly strong in that area, running its biennial Cornfest complete with mascot Bob Cob to help bring sweetcorn to a wider audience of consumers. It has also underscored its promotional efforts with a slew of new product introductions that have included cobettes and corn kebabs. “It’s all about offering portion control and sweetcorn as an accompaniment and a starter. Children like them, and it’s quite a photogenic product,” Young explains.
Barfoots is already selling cobettes in packs with butter and chilli dip variants, as well as microwaveable packs and some sweeter varieties, while S&A Produce reveals it is working on launching an exclusive new variety into the marketplace.
Elsewhere on a varietal development front, Tozer Seeds has been working closely with its US partner Illinois Foundation Seeds to bring varieties better suited to UK conditions to this country. Tozer is currently running an independent breeding trial in Hampshire with up to 200 different varieties on show for growers, according to sales manager David Rogers. The varieties on show feature characteristics such as cold soil tolerance so sweetcorn can get away quickly and better cope with the variable UK summer conditions. Varieties that are better suited to machine harvesting are also under consideration.
The trend in recent times has also been to develop sweeter and more tender varieties in response to consumer demand.
But not every innovation has a place. Both Young and Anderson agree that bi-coloured sweetcorn - which has been a hit in America - has little potential in the current UK marketplace where consumers are looking out for rich yellow product. “Bi-coloured sweetcorn is perceived as not being ripe,” says Anderson. “People speak about sweetcorn on an emotional level.” Young adds that bi-coloured could work here in future, but not until penetration of the standard product has reached a much higher level.
That is in spite of some limited success for white sweetcorn, which Rogers says is starting to take off in the UK. But everyone agrees there is still some way to go. “Generally in Europe we feel the market is very new, so there’s still huge potential.”
If that potential can be tapped into, then for sweetcorn, the sky would appear to be the limit.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO GROW SALES?
Unlike other products, sweetcorn does not benefit from a generic industry campaign, with the majority of promotion done by the likes of Barfoots. That situation has arguably held back sales in the UK, growers claim.
“There’s not much impetus from the industry for promoting sweetcorn,” says Greyfriars’ Hamish Anderson. “It is growing in popularity but not nearly so much as in the US, where consumers eat it much more frequently. There’s more to be done to get more people into the category. We can educate people, and do more promotions focusing on the key eating quality.”
Anderson points out that sweetcorn is perceived as expensive outside of the UK season and that more year-round price promotions could be held to help keep interest up throughout the year.
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