UK growers are facing pressure on all sides and at a time when innovation is needed most to cut costs for production, tempt spending and bring in repeat purchases, the investment and attention to detail needed bring new ideas to market are harder to come by than ever.
It is not easy, but many growers and suppliers are doing what they can to take each sector forward and secure the long-term sustainability of the fresh produce industry as a whole.
One of the single most pioneering projects to hit the UK fresh produce industry in recent times has been the construction of the largest-ever British glasshouse development Thanet Earth, in Kent. The £80 million, 91-hectare site on the Isle of Thanet is owned by the Fresca Group and will eventually house seven glasshouses, a 30,000sqm packhouse, a research and development centre and wildlife and education projects, creating some 550 jobs and producing salad lines 52 weeks a year.
Three Dutch glasshouse growing specialists - Rainbow Growers Group, Red Star Trading and A&A - have entered into partnership with Thanet Earth, and each will firstly operate one glasshouse, with the option for a second at a later date. It is anticipated that the project will add an extra 15-20 per cent to current UK salad production area.
Robert James, technical manager at Thanet Earth, insists that the initiative has helped to raise awareness about home-grown production and the fresh produce industry as a whole. “This project has been a big investment for the industry,” he says. “We have been able to put in the latest technologies and on the back of that, we have been able to raise the profile of the fresh produce industry in the UK. The retailers are aware of what we are doing and our competitors have also taken it on board and moved forward - there has been more glass put up this year, but we cannot say if this is a direct result of what we are doing here.
“The new structures allow us to be more effective in our production, the environment is better for the plants and we have a significant amount of combined heat and power. We have been able to grow the right products for the marketplace, to a consistent quality, and in a sustainable way. We will be increasing densities next year because of the light levels we have been able to get.”
But the salads sector is not the only one benefiting from some effective forward planning, even though the majority of categories are unlikely to see projects of the same scale as Thanet Earth.
The soft-fruit category is one of the most innovative in the fresh produce aisles and is often said to lead sales in fruit, having built up a high profile of its own and made the most of its iconic status as a British favourite.
Angus Soft Fruits (ASF) introduced a completely new concept to the UK soft-fruit market when it launched its Good Natured Fruit brand for pesticide-free strawberries and raspberries, which quickly extended to include blueberries, salads and for the first time this year, potatoes.
The brand, now in its third season, is grown using a comprehensive blueprint for pesticide-free production put together after extensive research by ASF technical director Dave Griffiths.
The Good Natured concept has now been introduced across the majority of the 25 growers in the ASF group and the production system has been adopted by salads supplier Stubbins and potato firm Greenvale AP to produce Good Natured salads and potatoes respectively.
“I set this up six years ago as a major research and development project,” says Griffiths. “This came about after a recognition that we needed less reliance on pesticides because, as farmers, we were beginning to find that there were fewer pesticides available to us.
“This resulted in an inhouse training programme for a pesticide-free option and we carried out extensive market research to appreciate consumer expectations. We sat down with retailers and invested in brand support, so that we could set about delivering complicated messages in a simple way.
“Through the R&D programme, we identified every single pest and disease on our fruit and the natural way of controlling them because for every pest, there is a predator. And with diseases, we had to make sure that there was enough air flow around the crop so that pressure did not build up and that we started out with the healthiest plants.
“It has been challenging, but the process we went through on soft fruit has been a learning curve and we have got some very capable people on the team.”
The soft-fruit industry itself has come a long way since it was little more than a six-week season in the fresh produce calendar and it is now a £200 million business.
“The biggest innovation to have affected soft-fruit production in the UK has been the introduction of polytunnels in the last 10 years and more recently, the move away from Elsanta,” says Griffiths. “The industry has moved on in leaps and bounds to include a lot more everbearers, such as our own Ava, which is one of the longer-season varieties that we have come to rely on. Alongside this, there has been a move towards table-top production to reduce labour costs and improve efficiency.
“However, yields have been quite static for the last five years now, so to get significant improvement will have to be through varietal development.”
ASF has its own breeding programme through which four high-yielding varieties - yet to be named - have been on trial for four years and are now in the final stages of tests.
“It is going to be an exciting year ahead,” says Griffiths. “But we know that we will have to meet all the expectations that consumers have on flavour, appearance and shelf life, not just high yield.
“The challenge is that we are facing increasing costs, but prices and returns are not mirroring this and it is difficult to cover these without putting prices up.
“The soft-fruit industry, like most, has worked hard to get cost levels right down to the lowest possible levels.”
The potato industry is one of the few positioned to come into its own in the recession, having been driven by innovative firms, many of which have been in the industry for the long haul.
The Higgins Group is celebrating 50 years in the potato business this year, which were topped off last month when founder and chairman Mike Higgins was given the Potato Industry Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the sector and being “at the forefront of innovation and change”, Potato Council chairman Allan Stevenson said as he presented the gong.
David Higgins from the Higgins Group has a forward-thinking outlook on potato production. “We must always be prepared to innovate, to take calculated risks, to change the model if necessary and be at the forefront of change,” he says. “This means investing in people - agriculture is not a sexy industry but in light of what has happened to those sexy industries, perhaps it is more attractive today.”
The last 10 years, he says, have seen potato production evolve more than fewer growers, larger production units and companies right the way through the supply chain investing in growing crops. At the same time, production methods have seen bigger tackle, less labour, more attention to detail and a more professional outlook.
“UK potato production is fairly stable at some 130,000ha, which supports significant fresh and processing markets focused on the UK offer,” Higgins explains. “There is a constant stream of new varieties with a higher saleable yield and we have a variety that has yielded more than 100t/ha in Germany for starch.
“New varieties that require lower inputs of nitrogen, are more drought tolerate, more disease tolerant and have longer storability with less wastage, as well as higher yields.
“The future will see more precise application of inputs with less waste and larger growers with economies of scale.
“The best way forward for UK growers is to produce crops best suited to land type, have a sales plan before planting and stick to it or perhaps combine some fixed and free volume,” Higgins continues.
“There is lots of innovationin processing with new flavours, better packaging, less salt and fat and a constant stream of new products. On fresh side, breeding is trying to develop varieties with better taste.
“Alongside this, a lot of work is going towards educating the consumer about the health benefits of potato compared to other carbohydrates.”
Another category that has held its own through the economic downturn has been the vegetable offer, which is continuing to introduce new varieties and lines.
Marshalls is a good example, having worked with Seminis to launch a new sweet-tasting, long-stemmed broccoli, Bellaverde, into supermarkets last year. The variety, backed by a PR campaign featuring celebrity chef Gino D’Acampo, was developed to tap into consumer demand for a less bitter-tasting broccoli, as one in four people are known to dislike the bitter aftertaste of cruciferous vegetables.
Marshalls harvested the crop from one dedicated farm in Lincolnshire from July right through until the end of November, before production switched to a farm in Spain to ensure year-round supply.
Phil Effingham, director of farming and agronomic development at Marshalls, says the variety is trading well above expected levels. “Bellaverde is gaining in popularity,” he says. “We were looking at presentation, flavour and eye appeal and Bellaverde met all three.
“We are now looking at a range of new products to stimulate the brassica palate and try to tempt consumers to eat their greens, rejuvenate lines so that they have a broader appeal and try to get more young consumers into the category with both convenience and flavour.”
But Effingham admits that it has not been easy to take the brassica category forward, insisting that “market failure” has held back R&D, especially over the last two to three years when the market has become increasingly competitive.
“We are not generating enough capital to develop the automation that we need but, on the other hand, we need to lower our costs - it’s a chicken-and-egg situation.
“But we have to remain competitive on a week-to-week basis, but at the same time not forget the long-term needs of the business. We are investing heavily in the medium- to long-term aspects of the business, probably to the detriment of day-to-day trading. This includes automation and getting more control of the crop through various technologies, as well as forecasting.
“We have reached optimum yield, but there is some way to go on saleable yield - which makes up about 75-80 per cent of the crop - and in order to do this, we are focusing on the handling process.”
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