Since Taste of Wight was abandoned due to lack of funding last year, the Isle of Wight’s fresh produce industry has continued to push its brand forward in the style that it has become accustomed to for decades. Near household names The Garlic Farm and the Wight Salads Group, to name a couple, have gone from strength to strength, with both local and national demand remaining buoyant.
But why has this resilient island that spans just under 150 square miles and has one of the best micro-climates for growing fruit and vegetables in the UK been left out in the cold? If one thing is clear from talking to producers and independent retailers on the Isle of Wight, it is that they need one uniform voice to promote their industry.
Originally a South East England Development Agenda (SEEDA) project, what became Taste of Wight was taken over by the Isle of Wight Council two years ago and since then mainly focused on its magazine publication Taste. Coming under fire for its elitist attitude, the magazine only seemed to be circulated to those on the island in the know and the food group’s impact was generally not as far reaching as had been expected. It could no longer sustain its existence without funding and disbanded.
Many of the island’s businesses are now crying out for a capacity that would allow them to join in a combined force to tackle some of the embedded issues - such as distribution and the lack of routes to new marketplaces - that plague the industry.
“Everyone competes against each other rather than working together on the island,” says Susie Sheldon, grower and owner of King’s Manor Farm Shop. “We need to work with supermarkets and foodservice providers on the island. Customers like the choice of having local food, but we have big distribution problems on the Isle of Wight. Some of the companies that deliver to us share the load in the same van, but the majority does not. This is where a regional food group could really help practically. Producers could co-ordinate their efforts and save money, time and the environment.”
Many of the fresh produce companies on the island view the cost of the ferry journey in the same way the London trade thinks of the congestion charge.
David Brown, director of AE Brown, which works in partnership with Barfoots of Botley to produce sweetcorn and asparagus on the Isle of Wight, is the third generation of a farming family. He says that the producers pay for the island’s unique climate and soil. “As a producer of volume, you need to grow a product that can carry the extra cost of increasingly expensive inputs and, more importantly for the Isle of Wight, the transport across the sea,” he explains. “So that does tend to limit the product you can grow for the mainland.
“There would be opportunities out there if we could actually find the markets that want our product and this would fuel any future development [on the island]. Locally produced vegetables and soft fruit are becoming more and more part of the agenda; the local trend has not gone away. Supermarkets are pushing local produce harder and harder. But when you think of the volumes needed and the logistics of handling the crop; is it worth it?”
One person who does believe it is worth it is Graham Biss, chief executive of the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership, a not-for-profit organisation set up with funding from the Isle of Wight Council, but now self-sufficient. He believes that the island can take advantage of both the local drive in the area and marketplaces further afield.
“The island’s fresh produce is well established in the UK and has a great reputation - you only have to look towards the salads and garlic sectors to see that,” says Biss. “So we have a real advantage historically and there is real potential on the island. The opportunity for fresh produce growers and businesses very much lies in making more of our situation on the island. We have an influx of two million visitors to the Isle of Wight each year. There is a significant and growing awareness of local food and our effect on the environment. This is a period of potential for producers able to expand to meet these needs.”
The Isle of Wight Economic Partnership is delivering EU Leader funding won last year, which opens up a potential £2.7 million until 2013 for land-based businesses on the island. Companies can apply for up to £50,000 for a project and this will be allocated by the partnership.
One would think that this is exactly the kind of situation in which a regional food group would come into its own. But insiders say the fact that this amount of money is available without many in the industry knowing seems like a dead end.
Biss agrees and is in talks with the SEFGP to start up a new regional food group for the Isle of Wight. But he is determined to get it right. “The key is that this money should be used in the best possible way,” says Biss. “Clearly, product development within existing businesses, extending product ranges and new businesses should be a key priority. If conditions are right on the island then we should grow more and enhance the varieties we can deliver.”
Biss believes that the funding should bring the best possibilities for both land-based businesses and the Isle of Wight economy. The South East Food Group Partnership (SEFGP) has made funding available for the formation of a new regional food group, but Biss wants to be sure it is what the industry wants as a whole. “If producers tell us that a regional food group is part of this catalyst to take the island forward, then so be it,” he says.
Designed to fit
And there are a number of positive stories on the island, despite the lack of a regional food group to lead the way. The foodservice industry is thriving because of companies such as Coastline, which is actively looking to supply local schools, hotels, cafes and restaurants with local fruit and vegetables - without going via Southampton.
Having set up a central hub on the island two years ago, Coastline is determined to co-ordinate the distribution of Isle of Wight fresh produce to Isle of Wight businesses.
Chris Lewis, managing director of the wholesale and foodservice supply business that serves Hampshire, Kent and the Isle of Wight, organised the company’s second Coastline event on the island last Wednesday, with the aim of breaking into the Isle of Wight industry.
“We sent invitations to growers, suppliers, existing customers and potential customers,” says Lewis, whose business put on a day of cooking demonstrations and seminars at the Albert Cottage Hotel in East Cowes on September 23. “We have some local suppliers here but very few local growers. This is the battle we have here. Everyone is singing the praises of local produce, but it is such a nightmare to arrange it. There is a lack of action. I think people buy into the PR machines telling you what you want to hear, but is it actually happening?
“I know of an orchard that supplies a supermarket on the Isle of Wight. The store is five minutes up the road from the orchard, yet the produce travels 200 miles to be stored and is then sent to a regional distribution centre before it is delivered to that supermarket. The story on the shelf is that the produce is local; that’s all the consumer knows.”
So even if it is a case of wishful thinking, the market for locally produced fruit and vegetables is strong, as well as making a lot of sense for the local economy and the sustainability of the environment.
Coastline supplies Isle of Wight-based catering firm Pabulum, which has just launched a Field to Fork project that will see the company going into the schools it supplies on the island, giving assemblies on the benefits of eating fresh and local ingredients, as well as providing them with seeds to grow their own vegetables at school. Launched last month, the scheme was piloted last year in four Isle of Wight schools and the company will now roll out the initiative for free to the rest of the schools that it provides meals for on the island. Pabulum operations manager Kevin Phillips is the drive behind this scheme and is passionate about getting fresh fruit and vegetables back into the island’s schools. “We use fresh produce as much as we can,” he explains. “Everything is fresh and prepared in our own school kitchens, bar one that does not have a kitchen and uses the nearest school’s facilities. Where possible, we use local ingredients and try to trade as fairly as possible. We are now going to schools to explain the growing process and teach the children how to grow their own vegetables. It is my strong belief and wish to expose children to as much fresh fruit and vegetables as we can.”
When it comes to local produce, passion really is the word in the Isle of Wight and hoteliers Gloria and Geoff Holt, owners of the Shanklin Hotel on the Isle of Wight’s coast, are no exception. The mother-and-son team has recently introduced a local food-only menu throughout the year, as a result of both customer demand and quality and cost efficiency.
The idea first occurred to them after being asked to arrange travel trade convention Skal’s national assembly gala dinner this year. Given a brief of sourcing completely local food from the Isle of Wight for the meal, the hotel first contacted farmers’ markets to find out what was in season and discovered it worked well for all parties involved.
“Since we promoted our new menu on the website, it has caused quite a storm,” says Geoff. “People want good-quality, local ingredients and will come back for them. You can source it from the island - especially vegetables and salads. There is no need to source vegetables from Israel, for example, if you just change your menu to suit the availability here.”
Head chef Scott Stephens believes that his life is made easier by sourcing island fruit and vegetables, rather than through suppliers that rely on mainland goods. “We now use DJ Hunt, which tells me what is going on with the seasons and provides information, such as whether there is a particularly good crop of courgettes available at that time,” he says. “They source for me and it is with me no later than the day after harvest. We need daily deliveries and that is what you get with local companies. National companies like 3663 will only deliver to the island once a week. Coastline is interesting because it is making deliveries six times a week and is going out of its way to be local.
“We jump straight into the new vegetable seasons and don’t waste any time. We have to have a good variety available to us and the quality has to be good. We have to have consistency at all times.
“Sometimes, with local, we do not always get the exact variety we are looking for, but that is when we change the menus to suit the produce. We are lucky on the island to have a consistant supply of vegetables, but then if we want something particular, such as Hampshire watercress, we will get that. We hardly ever source fruit and vegetables out of the county though.
“Many of the hotels on the island buy in frozen vegetables, which is a shame. With the exception of peas, there is no need for it. When you think of the amount of corn on the cob that is grown on the island, for businesses to be buying frozen during the summer is ridiculous.”
Supplier Manor House Produce specialises in local fresh fruit and vegetables and has noticed an uplift in demand on the island. “Due to the supermarkets’ stranglehold on the trade, some items are hard to source locally,” says the company’s Nick Yates. “However, there is a rising demand from our customers.”
Getting a crush
The foodservice businesses on the island are picking up and the successful ones are doing well on the back of the local trend. Newchurch-based The Garlic Farm’s reputation precedes it and the The Garlic Farm Café was opened in March.
An extension of the company’s existing farm shop, the café specialises in high-quality, deli-style food with a garlic twist and has been jam-packed since its launch.
“We are doing 150 covers a day and then opening in the evening for private functions,” says The Garlic Farm’s owner Colin Boswell, who descends from a long line of growers on the island. “I have never been a restaurateur, but I have always had an interest in food, cooking and wine. I have never had this opportunity before, but it seems to be working. We have the Isle of Wight’s answer to a celebrity chef in Charlie Bartlett and source as locally as possible - and, of course, we use our own asparagus and garlic.
“Elephant garlic, garlic flowers and garlic scapes are very popular with our clientele,” he adds.
In fact, The Garlic Farm is doing a lot more than that. Each of the café’s 10 staff tends their own allotment on the farm, which collectively covers one acre, and produces fruit and vegetables for the café’s kitchen. As well as providing a constant trickle of fresh fruit and vegetables, the allotments also give staff that extra bit of knowledge when it comes to the food they make and serve.
“We are very pleased with the café and believe it adds value to The Garlic Farm experience,” says Boswell, who runs the business with his wife, Jenny. “We have heavily promoted the café and it has paid off. This is a unique experience for consumers in among beautiful surroundings and horticulture.”
Boswell saw the largest garlic harvest ever at his farm this year and believes that this was due to three new concrete-based polytunnels that increased the crop’s yield and have provided three times the drying capacity.
“Drying garlic is incredibly hard and you have to get it right,” says Boswell. “It was a late harvest because of late planting, and every year over the last five years has seen a new garlic variety.”
The farm’s early asparagus season also gives the island the edge, both at home and away. Including a small percentage of purple asparagus, the company saw an average production of spears this year and finished the season mid-June.
Soft fruit welcomed back
The island’s micro-climate used to be home to many soft-fruit producers, as well as potato growers, but over the years, the industry has disappeared due to lack of funding and the popularity of the international market. But while the potato sector on the island seems to remain at a very low level mainly for farmers’ markets and farm shops, soft fruit appears to be making a comeback, with several growers including AE Brown taking the reins.
One person who is watching this situation very closely is Kevin Williams, co-owner of J&K Polyculture (IOW) Ltd. With 30 years’ experience as a polytunnel and plastics supplier and advisor, Williams set up the company 20 years ago and has seen the industry excel nationally.
“In the last six to seven years, things have taken off as protected chopping has been at the forefront; we now have more than 500 customers,” he says. “Polytunnels have come on in leaps and bounds due to different technologies and additives. Production with polytunnels was not really there 10 years ago, and then it came on too quickly for the public in some places, which put progress back.
“There are a lot of glasshouses on the island, but the industry here is still not fully utilising the potential of using polytunnels or bed films. These technologies could really extend the seasons here.”
A local farmer has began growing raspberries with polytunnels on the Isle of Wight and, according to Williams, producing soft fruit on the island is a growing trend. “If someone was brave enough to do it, the seasons would be very early here and continue late into the year,” he maintains. “So the priority would be to keep the product here on the island. I have heard of tomatoes going all the way to the mainland only to come back again and of sweetcorn from the mainland being imported. Large companies and supermarkets have briefly allowed cheap distribution to change the meaning of local for the community and the economy.”
Nevertheless, Williams says that he has noticed a change in the air in the last couple of months. “It was competitive on the island for soft fruit 10 years ago but, in the last 12 months, the last of the big growers on the Isle of Wight retired and there has been very little soft fruit around.
“But it is coming back to the island slowly, and strawberry and raspberry growers are the ones who would do well out of it. The climate is right and the local market is here. If the growers produced just for island consumption, it would get eaten.”
The good life
Going back several decades before the success of supermarkets, the Isle of Wight’s fresh produce industry was once comparably self-sufficient.
AE Brown grows 500 acres of sweetcorn and 100a of asparagus each season, having moved from combined farming to mainly vegetables 14 years ago. Brown believes that the fresh produce industry would have a chance on the island if growers and potential growers had the money to invest in new projects and crops. As well as supplying Barfoots, his company serves local retailers and wholesalers, and takes part in several farmers’ markets both on the island and on the mainland.
“We are actively involved in the farmers’ markets in Winchester, Romsey and Petersfield and every week, we take part in a local one,” says Brown. “We have been doing it for three to four years. The only restriction to this is the matter of volume and getting to a sufficient level to sustain yourself. We could not survive on this market alone. But it is nice that, collectively, there is enough produce on the island for us to do that.
“You can produce a small amount and get really good returns or send large volumes to the supermarkets and receive what they are willing to pay. It is Catch 22.
“The Isle of Wight Economic Partnership is keen to get local fruit and vegetables into the public sector, but I think they are really going to struggle. There are very few growers left on the island and they have not got the capital to invest in new ventures or take the risk.
“In the mid-1960s, horticulture began to wane; up until then, potatoes had been big business. It may have gone too far to go back. We need greengrocers in place and there is a totally different outlook now. You are never going to drag people out of the supermarket, no matter how much they say they want to buy local produce.”
A new era
But with a new regional food group, the possibility of creating a sustainable, productive supply chain that welcomes both national and local trade, as well as supermarkets and greengrocers, could be nigh.
As well as offering Barfoots of Botley an increased geographical spread and opportunity to harvest vegetables earlier, from asparagus and sweetcorn to squash, the Isle of Wight represents a valuable outlet for supermarket trade.
“We market local lines in all of these with the national retailers that are present on the Isle of Wight and we measure that the ‘local’ factor increases the turnover out of these stores fivefold,” says Barfoots of Botley’s managing director, Graham Young.
Boswell is determined that such a group should exist. “Taste of Wight was a short expedition by the council, but there is wealth of food available in the Isle of Wight that desperately needs a group like that,” he says. “This was the council panicking because it thought it had lost control of the budget. Every other region in the UK has its own food group and we need that. The Isle of Wight has really interesting things happening and they need to be promoted.
“We need a network and focus; small producers could join up with certain major suppliers. It happens everywhere else in the country.”
The Isle of Wight Economic Partnership is currently approaching land-based businesses with a questionnaire to determine whether the area needs a regional food group and whether it would be welcomed.
“There is a lack of a joined-up approach, but the possibilities are endless on the Isle of Wight, as the businesses here are smart and well-run,” says Biss. “They just need to realise the opportunities available to them, like the EU Leader funding.
“There is a growing and developing network of farm shops, which is satisfying different needs to those of the supermarket shopper. There are clearly places for both of them if the island can successfully meet the need for both. We are an added-value production, not a mass market.
“The SEFGP has been very active in this process and has tried with Taste of Wight. But now, the focus is to get a group established that will become sustainable and benefit producers on the island and its economy.”
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