When the Journal last reported on Univeg’s organic capabilities, the company was expanding its Spanish production with a new site in Sacoje. Now, says organics account manager, Shaun Beel, there are 70 hectares of land in rotation with an additional 100ha for potential expansion in the isolated organic valley.
“This is the area away from the conventional growing areas around Lorca in Murcia,” says Beel, “and we also had the benefit of five hectares of early land this Spanish season. This is approximately one hour from the site and on higher ground for early and late season crops, plus an additional five hectares in conversion for winter 2004/05.”
Univeg’s key strength in its organic offer is its procurement plan. “In the past few years we have improved our sourcing strategy, in particular for the handover, or shoulders of seasons, between UK and imported crop,” says Beel. “The UK is always put first assuming quality requirements are met. However for certain crops there is always a need for imported produce when the UK growing season has finished.
“Italy had a poor year on lettuce crops owing to bad weather but fortunately our increased crops at Sacoje removed the issue of short supplies. At one stage this winter I believe Waitrose was the only retailer to offer both Romaine Hearts and Gem Hearts to its customers, and we are currently the sole suppliers with all produce coming out of Sacoje.”
The Sacoje site has been invaluable in reinforcing Univeg’s position this season in terms of securing supply, especially since transportation has improved. “We receive deliveries seven days a week from the Sacoje site, which is fully controlled, therefore removing the guesswork on arrival times that is normally associated with groupage,” says Beel. “Instead of two deliveries a week, we have a daily top-up of produce to meet our forecast order expectations which can only go towards improving the freshness of crop delivered to our customers.”
It is a pre-requisite of supermarket supply that not only must produce look good, but that all packaging must be as appealing as possible to the consumer while maintaining the practical function of protecting the produce itself. “There has probably been more development of late in organics, and accordingly we now make use of bio-degradeable packaging, including punnets and labels,” says Beel. “As far as Univeg organic packing investment is concerned the most recent packaging improvement was the purchase of the flow-wrapper and on-line label applicator, which has improved the presentation of flow-wrapped organic lines such as peppers and courgettes for Sainsbury’s and Little Gem Hearts four-packs for Waitrose.”
Seed derogation remains a prime concern for organic producers, says Beel, particularly since many growers raise organic crops from untreated conventional seed. “There is still too little development in this area compared to the financial gains associated with the much larger volumes on the conventional side.”
Inhibiting the purchase of organic produce are the issues of availability and price perception - two barriers that must be overcome.
“Unless lines are offered week in, week out, people will not be able to make a repeat purchase of something they have enjoyed and this is disappointing,” Beel concludes. “If people return to the store and the product is not there then consumer faith is lost and they either buy conventional or go elsewhere. This is why so much effort has been put into securing our import options.
‘With the issue of price perception it is not that organics are expensive, but in comparison to conventional it can be seen that way. This premium is required given the reduced yields of organics together with increased costs of production - quite simply a reduced volume means individual heads or kilos of crop have to recover more on an individual basis - without this where is the incentive for the grower to persevere with organic crops?”
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