When the UK recently baked amid its annual blink-and-you’ll-miss-it heatwave, the tabloid press were quick to splash their front pages with the usual images of scantily-clad young women lapping up the rays on beaches across the British Isles.
Brassica growers, though, had other concerns.
Chris Gedney, MD of TH Clements, which supplies numerous brassica products to around 20 per cent of the UK brassica markets, tells FPJ that while the big talking points in brassicas sector are issues around sustainability, and the ‘Living Wage’ chancellor George Osborne recently announced in his budget (see p4 for reaction to this story), the recent “extremes of the record-breaking weather conditions cause the biggest challenges.”
According to Martin Tate, MD of Produce World LFP, formed following the merger of Produce World and Lincolnshire Field Products, this weather has had a significant impact on the market in multiple ways.
He says: “When weather conditions are ‘normal’, then supply and demand is in balance. But we have had some exceptionally warm weather recently which has brought its own challenges.
“While weather is always an issue, the hottest days on record we recently experienced resulted in stressed crops and increased pest pressure, as well as reduced consumption.” Despite this havoc, the weather has since returned to something like normal, ditto sales, according to Tate.
One of the key weapons in retailers’ arsenals during the supermarket price war has been broccoli. According to grocery comparison website MySupermarket, the price of a 335g head of broccoli currently ranges from 45p to 50p at Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, Ocado, Tesco and Sainsbury’s.
In July 2011, ProduceView data shows that a broccoli head of the same size was selling for between 97p and £1 at Tesco. In July 2012, the product was selling for £1.19 at Asda, while one month later, ProduceView’s figures show that The Co-operative had 335g broccoli heads on sale at £1.80 each.
Gedney and Tate hold differing views on this subject. The former argues that putting the price of broccoli down causes a significant increase in demand, and resultantly, TH Clements has seen a significant uplift in demand.
Tate, though, notes: “Clearly prices at or below the cost of production are unsustainable for producers and retailers alike. Consumers are happy to pay realistic prices in other categories such as fruit and salads, and we need to ensure that they understand the value they are getting in tasty, healthy brassicas.”
He adds: “We need to work with our customers to ensure that current and future consumers appreciate the value for money represented by brassicas which provide all year-round, tasty, healthy eating. Produce World LFP is fully engaged with the Brassica Growers Association, which is running a PR campaign – Love Your Greens – designed to do precisely this.”
So what does the future have in store for the category? Crystal ball-gazing, Gedney says: “We think the biggest changes in the category will be fewer suppliers within a retail sector of £550 million per annum based up to June 2015.”
Tate adds: “We have already seen increased consolidation in this sector, and this is a trend that is bound to continue. By forming Produce World LFP we believe we are ahead of the curve in coming up with a market solution that gives us the scale that we need to be the lowest-cost producer, as well as providing the best possible quality and service.”
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