With a current value of £4.8 billion, the vegetable market has not experienced much growth in the last year - just one per cent in value and 0.1 per cent in volume, according to new Kantar data.
The figures speak of a stable, but also perhaps stagnant, overall market in which consumers are buying less frequently than before, but beneath the headline figures are some promising developments.
Robert Oldershaw Jr, of allium producers The Oldershaw Group, thinks this trend in the vegetable aisle is down to thrifty shoppers. “I think consumers are being very savvy with the amount they buy and only buying enough to minimise waste,” he says.
“Onion performance is outstripping that of total vegetables, however, in terms of value and volume growth over the same time frame. This has largely been driven by red onions, which have enjoyed a healthy increase in penetration and frequency of purchase. Customers have responded to red onion promotions and have traded up into what is considered to be a more premium end of the sector.”
Hence retailers will respond by stepping up promotions, he believes. “The two-tier high street is becoming more and more evident with the discounters and Waitrose doing very well. This is also reflected in the onion figures. I would expect to see larger retailers competing hard through promotional activity.”
This picture is backed up by Mark Phillips, sales and marketing director at Produce World. “Total vegetables is a broad category and as you’d expect some vegetables are performing better than others, in particular brassicas, which are up by 6.2 per cent and alliums by 5.9 per cent. In the allium category, Brussels sprout sales have increased by 12.3 per cent and red onions by 19.9 per cent.
“At the same time we are all aware of the current economic situation. In this context, I would see the performance of the category as stable rather than stagnant.”
The discounters are the fastest-growing retailers in veg, but far from undervaluing the product, Phillips feels their price levels show the importance of the category.
“Retailers can charge what they want and each has its own strategy; by investing in price reductions it’s clear that discounters recognise the important role vegetables play.”
Oldershaw is not too worried either. “The hard discounters, by virtue of their low-price policy, will always be lower than the market and I think they certainly have a place in the market. I believe that the big retailers, however, do tend to offer something extra to customers, be it innovation and NPD, provenance or greater technical assurance.”
In terms of crop volumes, Phillips points out that, as everyone in the industry will be aware, it has been a difficult year, “particularly for brassicas”. “Given the poor weather to date and forecasts of more to come, there will inevitably be pressure on yields. Conditions during the coming months will allow us to decide just how much of an impact the weather has had. In the meantime, we have already taken steps to mitigate the effects, and will continue to focus our efforts on developing solutions to fulfill the needs of our customers.”
The bad weather has affected not just brassica crops, but also carrots. “The first of the new season British carrots are now in store, which is quite a success story given the terrible weather we have been having,” reports Rodger Hobson, chairman of the British Carrot Growers’ Association. “There is a real dearth of UK produce at the moment, so I think our carrot growers have done really well, although the size of the crop and quantities available are quite small. For every tonne we would normally harvest, we’re getting about half that.
“April was the wettest on record; now the first half of June has been the wettest for 150 years and obviously carrots need sunshine to grow, so it has been a challenge, but consumer demand is up, which is good news.” -
PARSNIPS ARE NOT JUST FOR SUNDAYS
The falling popularity of Sunday roasts is putting parsnips through their paces, but a new campaign aims to bring them back on the menu, reports Lisa Kjellsson
With such an array of exotic vegetables to choose from, it is perhaps not surprising that consumers have abandoned the humble parsnip in favour of trendier treats.
Once a staple in the British diet, its health benefits now seem to have been largely forgotten. The fact that it is one of the most affordable foods in the fresh produce aisle is no longer a buying incentive either - it’s been a long time since post-war rationing, when housewives would stock up on root vegetables for warming stews.
Yet there is more to parsnips than meets the eye - in fact, it is one of the most versatile vegetables grown in Britain. Determined not to let them disappear off the British menu for good, The British Carrot Growers’ Association (BCGA) has launched a new campaign to highlight its many plus points. “Most of our members also grow parsnips, which are in fact related to carrots, so it made sense to extend our campaign,” says Rodger Hobson, chairman of BCGA. “Despite the fact that many consumers want to buy British as well as cook from scratch, parsnips are still a very undervalued vegetable, often only making it onto the family dinner table for Sunday roast.”
Ah, Sunday roasts. Once a national institution, these days a home-cooked roast is more of an occasional treat than a weekly occurrence, meaning parsnips have fallen out of favour too. Yet the buttery, slightly spicy, sweet flavour of cooked parsnips can enhance many dishes other than roast meat.
“We want to show how versatile parsnips are; from creamy soups and crunchy salads to spicy stir fries and gratins, we want to convey that you can be very creative with parsnips,” explains Hobson.
The campaign is targeting key food and health writers, making specially developed recipes available that the BCGA hope will change consumers’ perception of how the root vegetable can be used. Promoting its health benefits is also an important part of the activity as parsnips pack a nutritional punch providing plenty of essential vitamins and minerals.
In addition, a new ‘parsnip’ section has been added to the already popular British Carrots website. The pages contain contemporary recipes, as well as information on their history and how they are grown.
Tozer Seeds, the largest independent vegetable breeding company in the UK, is sponsoring the activity. “We are confident that the messages of versatility, taste and health will encourage consumers to think about parsnips for everyday meals, and not just the Sunday roast,” says Roger Vickers, commercial director at Tozer.
Wendy Akers, managing director of Mustard Communications, the PR agency behind the campaign, agrees. “For most of us, the great British parsnip is synonymous with the Sunday roast, but as the popularity of this traditional family meal declines, we are trying to encourage consumers to get a little more creative with their cooking and start enjoying parsnips in a range of dishes throughout the year.”
Akers and her colleagues created the range of recipes and commissioned photographs of the dishes.
They are hopeful the campaign will reignite a previously long-held passion for the root veg. “British parsnips have a long UK season stretching across 11 months and so will appeal to the increasing number of consumers who are interested in buying home-grown produce,” says Akers.
“Research shows that during the winter months only around 20 per cent of British households regularly buy parsnips, with under half that figure regularly purchasing them during the summer months. But when you appreciate that you can treat them in much the same way as you would a potato - roasted, mashed, in soups, as chips or crisps - you begin to realise the parsnip’s full potential.” -
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