Asparagus has long been one of the darlings of British seasonal produce, and this year has been no different with social media enthusiasm among chefs, fans and early-season suppliers beginning well ahead of the main season.
The category also benefits from a proactive industry-backed promotion campaign – British Asparagus – which seeks to create and stimulate demand ahead of the British season. It’s a sign of its popularity that asparagus no longer requires a celebrity brand ambassador – in the past it has used Gizzi Erskine and Valentine Warner – as marketing specialist and campaign manager Pam Lloyd believes it has reached the stage where “it can be the star of its own show”.
Instead, this year’s campaign is focused on grower publicity and Lloyd’s team is currently midway through a 16-date ‘asparatour’, which involves taking national and regional press out to visit growers, and encouraging newspaper and radio coverage. Lloyd explains: “Growers invest hugely in their crops in terms of time, care and indeed money and the campaign is championing them this year. We have had a full-page piece in the Daily Mail on Oxfordshire growers Julia and Lizzie Colegrave, and The Times and the Guardian have both run stories on the Chinn family in Herefordshire.
“Growers around the country have taken part in radio interviews and several pieces of TV coverage are scheduled for further into the season. This is all in addition to the annual stack of recipe and seasonal produce features across long and short-lead regional, national and lifestyle titles.” On the digital side, Lloyd says campaign website www.british-asparagus.co.uk saw a 20 per cent uplift in visits in April, compared to the same period last year, while the well-established @brit_asparagus Twitter account continues to generate “enthusiastic interaction and engagement”.
“Since the inception of the campaign we have promoted the message that asparagus is quick and easy to prepare so it’s good to see that ‘Quick and Easy Recipes’ is the most frequently visited page of the site,” she adds.
Its success is evident, as one grower explains how the biggest challenge is balancing volumes of what is an extremely temperature-sensitive crop, against growing demand. Commercial director at Evesham Vale Growers (EVG), Ross Baker, explains: “There is never enough production to meet demand. In the last week of April I had lots of production because it was warm weather, but not much demand. But it doesn’t worry me. And it is useful as it means whatever you grow you can sell. The challenge is to pack and meet orders – it’s difficult to manage the volume against demand.”
Baker says the company has invested in a lot of new asparagus plantings over the past few years, and with just over 200 acres of established crops, the company will not be planting any more this year. But he adds: “We are looking to increase acreage, but the challenge is two-fold – replenish old beds and identify new ground. Asparagus needs light sandy soils, and you need a good block of land. It should grow in a 10-year cycle, but if you put it in heavy soils it won’t last that long.”
Always keen to tout British credentials, retailers are quick to give shelf-space to the new asparagus crop and promote the beginning of the season. Morrisons in particular has said volumes could be up by 20 per cent, with asparagus buyer David Bartle adding: “Growing conditions look like they are going to be perfect. The good weather will not only affect the amount of asparagus grown but also the quality of the crop. We could have the most exceptional year since 2007.”
In contrast, Baker says volumes are actually down on last year, while Lloyd warns that if temperatures drop, so does production. “We are currently behind in volumes, which is no cause for concern it’s just down to the temperatures,” says Baker.
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