FPJ Big 50 Products 2017: 16-20

While onion prices have seen deflation over the past year, the category has succeeded in tying itself to emerging cuisines and new formats, meaning declines haven’t been as severe as in other vegetable products.

“Generally speaking, sales are good,” says managing director of the Allium Alliance, Malcolm Gray. “We’ve just come through four weeks of fairly good weather so sales of red onions are very good as they’re used in salads. On the mild onion side, the good weather means that everyone turns out for events such as country shows and pop concerts, and there’s an uplift on burgers and hotdogs.”

Mark Cheadle, category manager at Produce World, says onions have also benefited from the rise in meal solution companies, with recipe cards providing inspiration.

“The average selling price has gone down significantly, which is driving volume growth,” he says. “Value decline hasn’t been as severe because it’s been driving new usage. I believe it’s the millennial shopper doing more scratch cooking.” For Cheadle, one of the challenges facing onions is commoditisation. “There are lots of fantastic premium varieties, such as sweet onions to use in salad or onions that taste great raw. That’s a big opportunity,” he says.

Lettuce doesn’t normally make the mainstream media, but when supermarkets were pictured with empty shelves in January there was a national outcry.

Perhaps a reminder of the value of a staple, and much-loved, crop was not a bad thing – and the shortages helped drive prices upwards on a product that is frequently heavily discounted. With prices still not having fully returned to previous levels, the category is worth over £15m more than it was a year ago.

“We’ve had a bit of price inflation on the back of the shortages and some of the prices have remained, which is very welcome,” affirms Matt Boyns, commercial manager at PDM Produce, although he adds the caveat that “nobody is really making any money on icebergs” right now.

The sector, like others, is facing real concerns over labour shortages, and that too could add a few more pence onto the shelf price in future.

Romaine sales have been particularly strong – up 19 per cent and now worth 15.8 per cent of the lettuce category, according to Sarah Baldock, category and innovation director at Natures Way Foods.

With vintage weather boosting salad sales, there’s hope that this will be a sector with further good news going forward.

Boosted by health messages and premium products such as Tenderstem and Bellaverde, the broccoli category could be doing a lot worse.

Value and volume sales both rose slightly over the last year, but recent high temperatures have hit the category hard with yield losses reported in both Lincolnshire and Kent.

Head of agronomy at Lincolnshire firm Freshtime UK, Mel Miles, says: “The warm weather in June accelerated crop growth rates. Unsurprisingly, we have seen some yield losses in the first of the open broccoli crops – a percentage of heads starting to flower and a greater degree of variation in the crop than we would normally expect to see.”

Director of Veg UK, Julian Pitts, says high temperatures had a “massive effect” on crops, although it’s too early to count the full impact.

In Cornwall, it’s a better picture, and managing director of Southern England Farms, Greville Richards, says broccoli yields are good with the company having picked up some additional orders. “We started a week late but it’s been a big summer for broccoli. Yields are good and we’re very pleased with the crop,” he says.

Challenging weather aside, there is clearly ample demand for broccoli as long as the supply is there to meet it.

20. Oranges

Value: £173.1m (+2.4%) Volume: 103m kg (-0.2%)

Solid year despite shaky supply