The UK asparagus industry is looking back on a favourable summer campaign for the vegetable, with marketing and sales turning in positive figures despite what the British Asparagus Group called the 'toughest trading conditions for a generation'.
'Our goal is always to keep driving household penetration upwards and toincrease purchase frequency by continually raising awareness and enhancing demand,' said Ross Baker, commercial controller at Flamingo UKand chair of the British Asparagus Group. 'We seek each year to sell more asparagus, but not at any price, so for the 2010 season it was morevital than ever that we maintained our message that British asparagus is a special, seasonal, premium crop.'
For the 12 weeks period ended 12 July, UK asparagus sales value climbed 22 per cent year-on-year to £21.4m, according to Kantar data, while sales volumes jumped 29 per cent.
Household penetration grew 22 per cent year-on-year, up from 13 per cent in 2009 to 16.2 per cent, while purchase frequency improved by 6 per cent, Kantar revealed.
'The increase in purchase by household from under 3 per cent less than adecade ago to above 16 per cent today speaks volumes, as does the increased awareness by the customer of when UK asparagus is available and of its superiority over imported asparagus,' said UK asparagus grower Paul Southall. 'As growers we need tobe confident that what we produce will be demanded, especially with a product such as asparagus that is very expensive to establish and ties up ground for many years. The impetus given to the crop by the British asparagus promotion has given us that confidence.'
For the 2010 British asparagus marketing campaign, the 9th year the drive has been running, there was a focus on celebrating growers to enhance the crop's media profile, generating editorial coverage and both national and regional broadcast coverage.
As a result of the campaign, over 200 pieces of directly attributable editorial coverage was generated, along with an audited print circulation of 38.31m, while the campaign website saw total visitor number rise by 25 per cent on 2009.
'As a group we remain committed to supporting this important British crop,' noted Graham Young of Barfoots of Botley, who is taking over the position of chair of the group. 'We all have increased area of planting for the 2011 season and beyond and we look forward to the challenge of continuing to grow the category.'
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