Greenery geared up for dieters

Salad and vegetable specialist The Greenery has been working with its supermarket customers over Christmas to prepare for a very short healthy eating boom at the start of 2007.

It will not be a long-term logistical exercise because previous experience suggests the boom will last no more than three weeks.

Martin Brown, managing director of Greenery UK, said: “The first week after Christmas always sees a huge increase in salad sales. It is not clear if this is because of a wave of New Year resolutions to adopt a healthier diet or just a reaction to the excesses of Christmas week.

“If it is a result of New Year resolutions, the resolutions appear not to be kept for long - because within three weeks the peak of sales has declined back to the average winter level.”

In the first week of January 2006 The Greenery shipped 25 per cent more than its average weekly winter volume of tomatoes and cucumbers -an additional 250 tonnes of tomatoes.

To ensure that supermarkets can meet the demands of shoppers with a short-term appetite for fresh produce at the start of 2007, The Greenery scheduled harvesting of salad vegetables over the Christmas period so that produce could be delivered to stores this week. This has meant planning well in advance to ensure that growers had sown crops under glass in time to meet the post-Christmas rush.