There’s something almost artistic about the summer barbecue, with its array of lovingly arranged burgers, sausages, kebabs and the rest, but giving it that pleasing dash of colour are the bright yellow cobs of sweetcorn that have become an essential element of the modern outdoor feast.
The category is enjoying good days on the back of this trend, as well as across the restaurant sector, as fast-dining places spring up across the nation’s cities. As summer belatedly arrives supermarket sales are likely to accelerate too. Kantar figures for the 52 weeks to 19 May show sweetcorn sales have enjoyed a 4.7 per cent uplift in the past year, with the category now valued at £96.5 million, while volumes have also increased 2.6 per cent to 31.3m kg.
While last summer was something of a sales bonanza, it wasn’t plain sailing for suppliers, who had to deal with multiple challenges. “The 2018 growing season was particularly challenging, with an array of weather-related issues,” says Julian Marks, group managing director at Barfoots. “This, coupled with the World Cup and a royal wedding, certainly created a spring and summer season that wasn’t as smooth as we would have liked. 2019 has started with more promise. Sunshine and warmth early in the season has meant crops have established well and volumes look in line with planned programmes as we move into July and August.”
It would be easy to pinpoint summer as essential to the category’s positive performance, but Marks says that a consistent product offer throughout the year is attracting new consumers too. New varieties, improved cool chain and the convenience of a fully prepared product are all contributing to steady growth, while fresh corn on the cob, and especially cobbettes, are now popular all year round.
As the UK’s largest grower and importer of sweetcorn, Marks reveals that Barfoots has recently commissioned a new purpose-built corn on the cob processing facility – a site that includes the addition of significant production and cooling capacity, as well as space for the development of increased automation and new processes. For this summer, despite the absence of heavyweight events such as a royal wedding, Marks says plans are in place that will “deliver excellent value to consumers in the height of the barbecue season, and with newly commissioned production capacity alongside a promising-looking crop, volumes should be entirely manageable.”
Marks teases that Barfoots has a number of new innovations under wraps that will launch in late 2019 and 2020, and sweetcorn also looks well set to benefit from the meat reductionism trend, particularly as a versatile ingredient for snacks, sandwiches and salad bowls. As if to underline the point, Boots last month unveiled a limited edition vegan ‘no chicken and sweetcorn’ sandwich featuring seasoned wheat gluten and soy protein pieces, with sweetcorn and seasoned vegan mayonnaise, on malted bread.
Such innovation is only likely to continue, leaving a category poised to break through the £100m sales barrier in the coming year.
No comments yet