Orange is the new black, but perhaps white and purple are the new orange. When it comes to carrots, innovation is taking shape, with new colours, formats and presentations continuing to add interest to the category.
Freshgro, a leading Nottinghamshire-based supplier, has been at the forefront of moving the category forward, and managing director Martin Evans says new developments taking place in the foodservice sphere are starting to transfer to the supermarket segment. That includes a range of colour and flavour options such as long-finger and sugar carrots, bunches and, increasingly, a multicoloured offering.
Freshgro has produced a tricoloured Chantenay mix of orange, white and purple which encourages consumers to try different types of carrot. “We have sold a huge tonnage as a mixed-purpose pack,” says Evans. “In my opinion the foodservice sector has been the innovator, while retailers have been behind the curve. These packs create excitement.”
What such products also do is encourage consumers to trade up, something that is vital in a heavily commoditised category. With prices falling as low as 28p/kg across the major grocers, generating some added value seems like a logical step.
To that end, the rise of new formats such as spiralised or carrot spaghetti is a welcome one for the category, regardless of whether it is supplying in pre-packs or in raw form for consumers to process at home.
There’s not quite the same level of innovation taking place in parsnips, where the challenge remains how to get the root crop away from just a Christmas and occasional Sunday roast favourite. Nevertheless, growers are reporting good demand, with retailer promotions bringing a volume sales uplift.
For the upcoming English season, things are looking positive, with the new carrot crop expected to start this week in Suffolk. Rodger Hobson, chairman of the British Carrot Growers’ Association, says it is shaping up to be a “fairly normal season”.
Mixed weather might not do carrot sales any harm, but with increasing amounts eaten raw and in coleslaw and bagged salads, the number of sunshine hours shouldn’t be decisive for sales anyway.
Hobson’s own farm, which specialises in different formats, has just developed a new line of air-dried carrot crisps, backing up the general sense of innovation taking place in the sector.
Leading grower Guy Poskitt describes the market as “relatively flat”, pointing out that carrots have become something of a poster product for ‘wonky veg’, even if it is not a particularly helpful association for a category that has worked hard to produce high-quality and visually attractive vegetables. What would help instead, he says, would be for retailers to widen specifications on Class I to compensate for the increase in costs brought about by the introduction of the National Living Wage.
As for the breeders, the focus for carrots is on improved quality, foliage health and the possibility of extending the early part of the production season as well as later varieties with storage suitability, according to Elsoms’ root crop manager Martin Strickson. Improved disease resistance, particularly against cavity spot, is a high priority.
Elsoms has added new maincrop maturing variety Norfolk, which gave positive commercial results in 2015 and will be used in large areas for 2016. Suitable for sowing from late March to early June, Elsoms says it produces attractive well-filled roots with a high percentage of marketable crop. It is also offering mid-season maturing variety Natuna, which produces high-quality roots and above-average yields, with roots strong against splitting and breaking.
On parsnips, Strickson says breeding reliable and robust new varieties is vital, with key goals being to improve quality, colour, disease resistance – particularly to canker – reduced crop wastage caused by bruising and extending the season with earlier maturing and later varieties with longer-term storage potential.
Panorama has established itself as a leading commercial UK variety, proving flexible for production throughout autumn and into early winter. Meanwhile Pearl is a maincrop late-maturing variety that is offering high-quality, smooth attractive roots and excellent colour, according to Elsoms.
It all looks reasonably positive for the season ahead, and while price remains a real concern for growers, it perhaps also represents an opportunity to highlight to consumers what a fantastic-value product it is. As Hobson calculates, based on the Department of Health’s recommendation that you need 80g of veg for a portion, at the kind of prices being seen in the supermarkets shoppers would need to spend just £8.30 a year to get a portion of carrots every day. In whatever format you like to eat it, that’s value for money.
Automating carrot handling
Tong Engineering has designed a new carrot handling line for MH Poskitt that is set to fully automate sorting of the company’s 1,000 tonnes of carrots each week.
The facility is designed over two levels and features a mezzanine floor to ensure the process can be completed within one building on site.
Washed carrots are received onto the new high-care stainless steel sorting line by a series of elevators and conveyors that feed a system integrating seven fully automated Visar Sortop optical sorters.
A sophisticated conveying system receives the sorted crop and transfers graded crop to boxes, bags, or onward for cooling, weighing and packing.
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