Once an exotic and somewhat confusing ingredient that baffled consumers and garnished dishes in restaurants, herbs in both fresh-cut and potted form have now burst onto the foodie scene, through recipes and general promotion spearheaded by the British Herb Trade Association’s (BHTA) Fresh Herbs campaign.
One of the biggest obstacles was teaching UK consumers how to use herbs effectively in the home. But market growth over the past few years has shown that consumers are much more familiar with using fresh herbs at home. This has been partly driven by the huge increase in the number of food programmes on TV, says Chichester-based HumberVHB’s marketing manager and BHTA campaign representative Leon Mundey. “These shows feature herbs heavily and the recipes have been partly driven by our PR campaign,” he adds.
Coriander is still the number-one herb in the UK, but other herbs are gaining momentum. Coriander leads the way in fresh-cut herb sales and basil follows in second place. Flat leaf parsley has also made an impact on the market of late, with growth of more than 15 per cent, year on year, in the last 52 weeks.
In the potted herb sector, basil is the most popular line, as a result of the difficulties involved in importing the product as a cut herb because of its delicate nature and its need to be kept above 12°C. While coriander takes second place in sales, flat leaf parsley has also seen an uplift and has come to be a major interest over the last six years -catching up with sales of curly parsley. Mint and thyme are also increasing in popularity.
“Cut herbs are still the best-selling model in the UK but we, as potted herb growers, believe there is always room for pot herbs within a country’s market,” says Patrick Bastow, managing director of pot herb specialist Lincolnshire Herbs Ltd.
“Growing pot herbs in the UK is successful, although the market is not growing as fast as cut herbs. We believe that there is a market for both cut lines and pots.”
Lincolnshire Herbs, known until last year as Swedeponic, believes that the real issue is what is best for consumers. “Cut herbs last for a matter of days and can be 100 per cent British-grown, year round. Also, Lincolnshire Herbs’ products are grown without pesticides, so there are some key points of difference between cut and pot herbs that are not always obvious or communicated. We also see sales rise in the spring and summer and, from our IGD research, we know shoppers do plant our herbs in their gardens in the spring -another key difference.”
The fresh-cut herb sub-category is still the biggest in the market because infrequent or new users of fresh herbs buy into it, points out Mundey. “The pot herb market is where more experienced cooks tend to shop, because they are more confident about how to use and care for the products,” he continues. “These consumers tend to want to have fresh herbs in their kitchens all the time, which they are able to do with pots because they can be kept fresh for much longer than cut herbs. Nothing is as convenient as having fresh herbs on your windowsill, as and when you need them.”
And innovation is continuing to flow through the herb industry, as microleaf herbs become more and more important. HumberVHB markets the British-grown brand, WOW! Microleaf, which has enjoyed exposure on cookery programmes over the last 12 months. A website - www.wowmicroleaf.co.uk - has now been launched to help widen the message about the products. The brand will also have a stand at the Food and Drink Expo in March.
The beginning and end of the UK season in March/April and September/October respectively are always difficult for the fresh herb industry. HumberVHB has been working hard with its growers to help reduce the impact that these times have on our supply.
“Coming out of the economic downturn, we forecast continued growth in the market and we have continued to scale up our own production accordingly,” says Mundey.
“The summer and Christmas is a popular time for consumers to buy herbs in the UK. Has this pattern changed at all since the campaign took hold three years ago? Not really; these two periods are still very much key times for the market. They are the times when consumers who would not ordinarily cook from scratch tend to do so, so sales of ingredients like fresh herbs rise sharply.”
Israeli herb production has topped up supply throughout the winter months and the season went by without any huge issues but, again, the economic situation continues to be a hurdle that has to be dealt with every day - according to exporter Agrexco, growers are “almost becoming used to exchange rate fluctuations”.
“Production is in fact slightly down, due to some of our growers switching from growing herbs to other lines, such as salads - mainly due to poor returns and the economic situation,” says Mike Caddy, product manager for herbs at Israeli exporter Agrexco. “On a positive note, some of our other herb growers increased their crops, so very little difference has been seen in our export figures. The trend of packers sourcing product globally has meant that while Agrexco’s main competitors used to be other Israeli growers, competition now comes from all over the world. Weather conditions as erratic and unpredictable as we have experienced recently have led to some of our customers showing a lack of confidence in their commitment to supplies, especially when these adverse weather patterns crop up and this can lead to shortages.”
Agrexco is working on reducing its carbon footprint and now ships 90 per cent of product by sea, which reduces the company’s carbon footprint by a further 30 per cent. “Many herbs are now shipped by sea and we will do everything in our power to ensure in the near future that all herb shipments arrive at their destination by sea,” adds Caddy.
But it is no secret that consumers are asking for more home-grown product and herbs are no exception. HumberVHB is investing in more glasshouse-grown cut herbs to help extend the UK season and protect the offer’s availability from the vagaries of UK summertime.
“Retailers flag all pot herbs with the Union Jack,” says Bastow. “We believe that this is one of the key selling points of pot herbs, especially during the import season.”
Last year, the BHTA campaign - which is funded by the Fresh Herbs Group, namely R&G Fresh Herbs, Lighthorne Herbs, Humber VHB, Scotherbs and Lincolnshire Herbs - was put “on hold” while its website was updated, but this year there are plans to go back to a full PR campaign, seeking out news stories and new ideas to help promote the use of fresh herbs to consumers. “The full plan is not confirmed, but we have got a committed group of investors who are working together to make the campaign happen this year,” says Mundey. “Last year’s campaign had less impact than previous ones, simply because we reduced our investment due to the economic climate. However, we have now got a great website - www.fresh-herbs.co.uk - which has a good level of traffic and contains lots of fantastic images, recipe ideas and care ideas for fresh herbs.”
But generally, there is the feeling that there is still a long way to go. “Research carried out by Lincolnshire Herbs with the IGD in 2009 showed that one of the barriers to repeat purchase of pot herbs was fear of ‘killing’ the plants and therefore generating waste,” says Bastow. “We have developed a herb tray and a care booklet to help consumers get the most out of growing herbs and to hopefully reduce customers’ fears of wastage. Where we have launched this both in the UK and other countries, we have seen sales increase substantially.”
WESTLAND NURSERIES GOES MICRO
The use of a programmed and integrated approach to disease control is an important requirement for growers in order to comply with production protocols of supermarket retailers, writes Barry Jones, operations manager at Westland Nurseries.
Westland Nurseries, in partnership with HumberVHB, operates a microleaf unit on a production site covering more than two hectares. Growing around 30 different vegetable, salad and herb seedlings including pea shoots, pink stem radish, purple shiso, red amaranth, Thai basil and coriander, Westland Nurseries also supplies the catering and restaurant sector, as well as supermarkets.
As consumers become more and more conscientious about the food they buy and are not solely price-led in their choices, retailers increasingly require growers to optimise any pesticide usage and employ residue reduction strategies.
In situations such as ours, where seedlings are grown on a continuous and intensive basis under protection, the issue of hygiene is crucial. Within our production system, we cannot afford any disruptions to the production cycle - problems can and will spread very rapidly and very easily around the whole production line, if left. The threat of disease carry over and build up between successive batches of plants can be very real and forms a continually evolving challenge.
Hygiene therefore forms a key part of our overall disease control strategy and is a pre-planting foundation to our crop protection; it is helping us to meet the increasing pressures to review control strategies and agrochemical use.
We look beyond a reliance on conventional chemical usage at Westland to keep on top and maintain extremely high hygiene standards in an integrated and preventative approach. Within this, a key element is a thorough and, importantly, routine disinfection process between each and every batch we produce. With harvest in as short an interval as every 10 days, this is a constant consideration for us. Implementing a ‘clean start’ between each successive crop is helping give the new crop the best possible growing conditions in which to thrive.
As part of our hygiene regime, we use Jet 5, a disinfectant containing peroxyacetic acid, which is ideal for us as a broad-spectrum treatment. It is fast acting and very effective at reducing and preventing bacteria, viruses, fungi and algae build-up.
Jet 5 works on contact, killing fungal spores or any other potential inoculum sources such as viruses or bacteria, which may be on surfaces or equipment. It gives us a very rapid action - disinfecting within the hour - which is important to keep up with our rapid turnaround in production, as well as forming part of an anti-resistance strategy.
It is an option that leaves no residues, contaminants or waste disposal problems to contend with. We are using it to sterilise everything involved in production before the crop goes in.
And by breaking the disease cycle, it helps reduce the severity and incidence of disease outbreaks when they do occur, as well as helping enhance our other strategies of crop protection including natural methods for insect control.
As they say, prevention is better than cure, and it is paying dividends and benefiting our entire production cycle. It reduces potential plant losses, helps maintain the quality of our products, and also prevents excessive labour and pesticide costs.
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