As UK vegetable growers stood hacking at the frozen ground amid the falling snow days before Christmas, there must have been plenty who wondered why they bother.
But thoughts of opening the packhouse at strange hours and struggling to get the produce to market have been washed away by images of growers clutching new season vegetables in local supermarkets.
It remains to be seen whether the snowy scenes of December will have caused lasting damage to key UK vegetable players but anecdotally many growers have described it as “the worst December I can remember” and a “total write-off”. And it’s not just at supplier level; even Sainsbury’s CEO Justin King is feeling the pinch, admitting February was far tougher than expected with the usual post-January pick up failing to appear.
For growers, the winter was split in two with conditions from
1 January onwards far more favourable. One source said: “It’s like two entirely different winters split by New Year. If you actually looked at it overall it’s quite an average year but of course at the bottom line it was a poor year.”
Fluctuations in variables have put growers on edge all year with business planning almost impossible as fuel and straw prices combine with the weather to provide more than just challenging circumstances. “There’s no point putting costings in an Excel spreadsheet,” says one grower. “You are down to a pencil and a rubber, it’s just so unpredictable.”
Hot weather over the last few weeks has brought the field asparagus season forward and images of growers clutching fistfuls of crowns are beginning to hit the nationals. The weather has brought harvesting forward by around three weeks and caught some growers a little by surprise. Retailers have also had to reshuffle promotional plans at the behest of Mother Nature but the sight of one of the most lucrative lines coming on stream will be a welcome one.
The season so far has been in marked contrast to last year when cool early season temperatures slowed up the crop and left retailers relying on Peruvian imports. Asparagus Growers Association (AGA) spokesman Adrian Barlow explains: “It is a premium product and it’s important that everyone in the supply chain realises that it’s an expensive product to produce. Against the background of huge increases in fuel and energy this year, good returns are crucial.”
The AGA is targeting household penetration of 25 per cent and it is hoped that promotional activities will help push towards the figure.
But, while the hot weather gives with one hand, it takes away with the other, with fuel costs now so high that one source says irrigation may be a problem. “When it can cost up to £600 to fill a tractor with red diesel then watering the crop can be a huge cost,” he says.
In the carrot category, significant import replacement has been achieved with the Scottish season almost over and a seamless switch to supplies from Suffolk expected, before progressing east through Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and into Nottinghamshire.
In the brassica category, things have been more difficult. The harsh winter weather hit the category hard and large suppliers are feeling the pinch. A number of growers are moving out of the cauliflower category in particular with good returns hard to come by even in the shortest supply situations.
With widespread concern over the profitability of a number of vegetable lines, there is a very real possibility that some large-scale growers may opt out of the sector in favour of either potatoes or arable farming. “It may come down to purely an economic decision ultimately,” says one source.
“If they can earn a similar or better living out of an arable crop then they are likely to opt for it. We have had to rationalise our exposure to risk and I’m sure that some growers will sit down with their bank managers and decide to switch crops.”
At consumer level, the latest Kantar Worldpanel consumption data for the 12 months to February reveal that vegetables feature at 31 per cent of all food occasions in the home. They most often feature at traditional main meal occasions - lunch (which accounts for 25 per cent of vegetable consumption), teatime (17 per cent) and evening meals (55 per cent). Vegetables are eaten hot in some 79 per cent of occasions.
It is clear that the vegetable category remains a tricky job but UK businesses will be hoping the prolonged sunshine is the signal of more positive times to come.
SEF FINDS NEW LEASE OF LIFE WITH COURGETTE PRODUCTION
Cornish vegetable supplier Southern England Farms (SEF) has broadened its vegetable offer and is increasing production in several key lines. Alex Lawson caught up with owner and managing director Greville Richards to discuss the company’s advances in courgettes, beans and asparagus.
Growth in the vegetable aisle can be hard to come by at the moment so the increasing popularity of courgettes will be a welcome phenomenon for UK supermarkets. Situated in the heart of Cornwall, SEF - which supplies major multiples - is benefiting from a climate suited to an early start and a late finish on courgettes, which has attracted the major retailers. SEF has now finished its first summer planting three weeks earlier than previous years and acreage has doubled. The business has seen 60-70 per cent year-on-year growth on the vegetable, having been growing them for eight years and supplying retailers for four.
Richards says: “Cornwall is very good for courgettes as in middle England they can suffer with later frosts. It comes on stream two to three weeks earlier than elsewhere, starting in the last week of May/start of June.”
SEF is growing 300 acres - around 3,500 tonnes - this year and hopes to get up to 600 acres of courgettes over the next two years. “We have a late finish on courgettes in mid-October so there is a real chance to replace imports from Spain at the start of the season and France at the end,” says Richards. “We have introduced 70 acres this year from two former cauliflower and one cabbage grower. The cauliflower job is tough, so SEF is trying to diversify into other products and a lot of people are moving into potatoes as cauliflowers have proved difficult. We have 2,000 acres of cauliflowers which we will be reducing next year.”
Alongside the courgette business, the company also plants two 15-acre plots of marrows a year as a complementary crop and is starting on baby courgettes for the first time this year. They will be 8cm long as opposed to the regular sized 14cm, 18cm and 21cm long.
Asparagus debut
SEF has also begun growing the Mondeo asparagus variety. “I’ve been speaking to retailers about supplying early asparagus from Cornwall and I’ve had my hand bitten off,” says Richards.
Over the next five years, SEF plans to plant around 500 acres of asparagus and started its first plantings just last week after allocating some land for it at the last minute. It expects the first crop in 2013.
“It has very high investment costs - around £16,000 an acre for a mix of smaller and large crown asparagus - and that’s before you factor in the labour costs but it’s a ten-year product and we are confident about its value. The climate in Cornwall should offer excellent growing conditions given that temperatures rise early.”
Looking ahead
It is clear that competition in the vegetable game is fierce and SEF is looking to diversify to counter the situation. “We are finding brassica competition a lot more fierce. Sales are falling dramatically but you still have the same large companies fighting for that market share.
“We have a different geographical offer in Cornwall. We find that when it’s hot in Lincolnshire and wet in Scotland then the supermarkets are often able to come to us,” says Richards.
There are clearly more steps ahead for the supplier as it looks to promote vegetable sales, re-enter the fine bean market and take further advantage of the Cornish brand which has stood the firm in good stead.
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