The early 1990s, and the UK was in the grip of its longest recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Despite this, UK consumers were growing more experimental in their consumption habits, allowing Bedfordshire Growers to launch red onions into Sainsbury’s – a novelty inclusion, at that time. Not long after that, Delia Smith included them in one of her hugely successful cookery books, and the product’s popularity soared.
However, Bedfordshire Growers’ onion supplier Alastair Findlay remained unsatisfied. Findlay’s family have farmed on the site he calls work and home in Bedfordshire since 1924. He became interested in plant breeding upon joining the family business, initially breeding sprouts for better flavour.
Findlay was frustrated that the red onions Bedfordshire Growers were providing were an inferior variety, with the business having to reject50 per cent of what it grew. He was convinced that he could reduce that waste through selection.
And so began a mission that would last over 20 years to consistently produce a red onion that would get as close to perfection as possible. Adopting a hands-on approach, Findlay set about documenting every single onion he bit into, making detailed profile notes about all of them.
He then kept the seeds from the best bulbs, and grew them individually: “With conventional breeding it’s only when you go through generations that you can get 100 per cent reliability,” he notes. There were, of course, noteworthy hazards along the way – some of the onions he tasted were so strong, Findlay says, that he couldn’t taste anything for two days afterwards. He tells FPJ: “A lot of my family and friends think I’m completely mad, but I’m a determined individual.
“Soon after I started, I tasted one bulb. It was so good, I thought, ‘I want to produce something this good consistently again.' It is relatively simple to produce something that looks uniform – it is a far higher hurdle to produce something that has uniform taste and texture.”
Findlay took part in a Hortlink project on sweet onions. Through this, he visited the US on a trip that incorporated calling at several sweet onion production states. At the time, 20 per cent of all onions sold in the US were sweet onions, but ‘sweets’ were virtually unknown in the UK.
The American growers he met were willing to share some tips of the trade, such as laboratory analysis, and this was a major step forward for him. Findlay says: “Onions are the second most used food ingredient in world, but in veg, taste can be ignored, and it’s totally ignored in onions. That is probably acceptable if they are cooked, but very important for eating fresh.
“Since reds have come onto the market, there have been few innovations in the onion world. Take cookery shows – they are dominated by people interested by flavour. And then look at the tomato category – that is dominated by flavour profile. We need more of that in onions.
“Seed houses are trying to do what growers want – high-yielding products, good appearance, and so on, but not necessarily what the consumer wants.”
Findlay’s diligence and determination has helped deliver the sort of innovation consumers might want. In February 2015, Asda launched Findlay’s sweet red onion hybrid – a product that was the “first ‘no tears’ onion in the world,” and which also promises being kinder to the digestive system, and is designed to leave no strong aftertaste or bad breath.
The release of this ‘kiss-friendly’ product on Valentine’s Day, which was no coincidence of a marketing scheme, generated the kind of publicity most fresh produce companies can only dream of, with Findlay even being interviewed live on Fox News TV in the US.
Following on from this, the retailer is now launching a branded version of the product, bearing Findlay’s name. The British-grown red sweet onions are also supplied to Marks & Spencer.
According to Bedfordshire Growers, conventionalred onions’ growth continues to trump that of brown onions, even though brown onions still dominate the category. Meanwhile, the share of the UK onion market held by sweet onions has gone from 0.9 per cent in 2013-14, to 3.5 per cent in 2015. Growth has come from imported yellow onions, the key sources being South America and Spain, but as Bedfordshire Growers’ MD Stephen Hedderly notes: “The potential of the market is huge.”
Of the product, Hedderly says: “We don’t have a climate that gives the demand opportunities that the US does. But if the product has doubled its growth already, in five years, growth can push up to eight per cent or 10 per cent of the market. Three factors could help uptake – healthier eating, the no-tears element, and if the sandwich market picks it up for the iconic cheese and onion sandwich. The sweet red is perfect with a mature cheddar”.
He adds: “Supermarkets want to reduce what’s on the shelf, so to get an original product on there can be like pushing water uphill, but we are getting there. However, although the discounters don’t want to innovate and lead, I don’t think it’ll be too long before they take a sweet onion line.”
One of the next steps for Bedfordshire Growers is to explore export opportunities for the British sweet red onion. Exports to South Africa launched just before Christmas, in time for that country’s barbecue season, and Hedderly notes that there is demand in the US too.
Hedderly says: “We are focused on developing partnerships in different countries – for example, we have growing trials in Spain,to see if a company there wants to grow the product for us for the Spanish market. We have trials in New Zealand ongoing as well as that. British supermarkets expect 52-week supply, so the obvious areas to look at are Spain and NewZealand.” In fact, Bedfordshire Growers hopes to have product coming over from New Zealand this year.
In a month in which David Bowie, a world-famous British eccentric and innovator has passed away, every industry needs to sing the praises of its visionary geniuses. Hedderly says: “When you talk about innovation, you talk about different varieties. But sweet red onions are a different form of innovation we’re creating ourselves.”
Findlay’s friends might light-heartedly jest that he’s a little bit mad, but future generationsmight look back at us and think that we were the daft ones for not focusing more on the taste of onions.
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