Business Link, in partnership with Tastes of Anglia, organised a trade development visit to Western International Wholesale Market last week for a group of the region’s specialist food growers.

The visit highlighted how the region’s producers could access new markets by selling their produce to the wholesale market, which in turn sells to local street markets, independent greengrocers, restaurants and the catering trade in London. With a high number of customers from the Indian and South East Asian communities, Western International Market offers growers of specialist and niche products real opportunities for reaching a wider audience and increasing their sales.

Western International Market has recently seen a boom in new customers and sales, with many more people now demanding English produce in season. There has also been a resurgence of interest in street markets across the country, which are growing in popularity again as the consumer looks for value for money in fresh foodstuffs. Together with an awareness of the food miles issue, these factors have created an excellent business opportunity for local suppliers.

As part of the visit, delegates attended a workshop run by business development manager for Western International Peter Clarke. He explained how keen the market is to involve local suppliers and said that suppliers need to consider continuity of supply, overall quality, good packaging and well-presented produce and a competitive price when supplying the wholesale market.

Clarke explained that one in three of the local population around Western International was born outside the UK and they are looking for specialist produce such as chillies, over-sized spring onions and a range of herbs including coriander and fenugreek.

The East of England producers, including a salad leaf producer, several soft- and top-fruit specialists, a chilli grower, root and maincrop farmers, were inspired by what they had learned on the visit. Joanna Plumb, owner of Edible Ornamentals, who grows chillies at her nursery in Bedfordshire, has already developed contracts to supply the market.

And Malcolm Kemp of Kemp Herbs, Kilverston, said: “It is always easy to get bogged down with our day-to-day routine on the farm and it is not until you go out and see other enterprises that you recognise that there are still opportunities out there.”

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