IMG_6632

The iconic St Michael's Mount, near Penzance, Cornwall

Glorious sunshine during FPJ’s recent trip to Cornwall and the South West temporarily hid what has been an extremely difficult spring for growers and suppliers across the region.

Average temperatures were almost five degrees lower than normal during March and April, meaning most crops were running up to two weeks behind, before temperatures finally warmed up. That followed one of the mildest winters on record, which caused an “avalanche” of cauliflowers and unseated cropping programmes by bringing all crops forward.

This peak and trough pattern is one of the reasons grower Southern England Farms (SEF) is investing in refurbishing an old packhouse with new refrigeration space, which will help extend shelf life of produce as well as managing crop gluts such as those experienced last winter.

“Refurbishing the old packhouse will help with Calabrese storage in winter,” explains sales manager Richard Trevennen, who, alongside directors Jane and Greville Richards, manages the retail accounts at SEF. “It will enable us to cope with a crop glut by bringing the temperature down to between one and two degrees. The bonus of doing that means we can increase shelf life.”

SEF farms 6,000 acres, including more than 2,000 acres of cauliflowers, and three other core lines of broccoli, spring greens and courgettes, as well as Savoy and pointed cabbage, asparagus, kale and Bellaverde.

“We’ve seen an increase in our Savoy and points business as it’s our first summer supplying Tesco with these. We now supply Tesco with Savoy 12 months a year,” continues Trevennen. “Our courgette business has increased year on year, but I can’t see it getting much bigger. The customer mix we have on all products suits us. We’re not out knocking on the door of the disounters as we’ve got a good mix at the moment. Tesco is reducing its courgette supply base from three down to two, so next year it will be two.”

With such an unpredictable weather year so far, Cornwall’s agronomists have certainly had their work cut out, but SEF’s Will Iliffe says the region’s climate is always challenging. “In Cornwall there is a big issue with disease because it’s typically warm and wet. If you’re not on top of the fungicide regimes, the product won’t be sellable. The cold spring is what everyone is talking about. Crops will be a bit late,” he says.

The new National Living Wage (NLW) continues to worry growers across the UK, and Cornish businesses are no different in looking to automation to help meet the higher costs. Neighbouring grower and Branston supplier Phil Rogers, of Pengelly Farms, is turning to energy production to help boost income. “The living wage will have a massive impact. We’re looking to invest our way out of it,” says Rogers. “We’ve invested £5.7 million in an anaerobic digestor, which will mean we are self-sufficient on energy and will be able to export back to the grid. This will be powered by a combination of potato waste and energy crops. Agriculture is all about risk management, so the idea is we will have a more risky potato business alongside a more secure energy business.”

Rogers, whose biggest customer is Branston but who is also a licensed grower of Jazzy potatoes in his own right, says the cold spring will “inevitably affect yields” for this season, with the season around two weeks behind at the moment.

“We’ve had a month of absolute hell with a gale force easterly wind, which we never get. They had similar problems in Suffolk, where the wind took a lot of the fleece off. On average it’s been around five degrees lower than usual this spring.

“We’d expect to be into open ground by the first week in June, but we will be around two weeks later this year. Consequently there will be a knock-on effect on the grower who will be taking crop on contract prices, rather than on a free market price. We see this year very much as an investment for next year, by doing what our customer wants.”

Branston has invested substantial amounts into its Cornish campaign, and communications manager Jackie Baker says the company has ambitions to expand its impact nationally. “There’s been a 60 per cent increase in customer penetration, and sales grew by 59 per cent between 2014 and 2015, due to the extra work we’ve been doing with the campaign. People recognise Cornish new potatoes as something special,” she explains.

A new online site – Seasonal Spuds – will promote Branston’s seasonal potato supply, including Cornish, and the company has also begun a new initiative to educate store assistants about handling produce, and grower information through video handbooks.

Added value is another area of investment for Cornish businesses, such as Riviera Produce, which is currently developing a new low-care prepared facility.

Fourth-generation grower and managing director David Simmons says his business is expanding year on year. Its turnover of £24m comes from cauliflower and spring greens production 12 months a year, as well as broccoli, Savoy and pointed cabbages, courgettes and kale. Almost all (98 per cent) of its business is through multiple retailers, and the company also has a small export business to Scandinavia. “We are now looking at adding value to products and are investing in a new low-care preparation facility to produce things like sliced kale, spring greens as well as floret packs. That’s where we see the most growth, in prepared,” says Simmons.

Speaking about Cornwall’s unique selling point within UK growing, Simmons says: “Cornwall is a great area for brassica production – people tend to think of it as hot but it’s not, it’s cooler down here than you would think. We also don’t have the pressure that comes with oilseed rape production, which can cause disease and pest pressures.

“We can grow cauliflowers 365 days a year, which gives us something different to other areas of the UK. And we tend to be a few degrees warmer than Lincolnshire, which gives us that continuity.”

Last year, there were reports that retailers had increased their Spanish cauliflower imports and reduced Cornish programmes, but Simmons believes this isn’t always the best option: “This year Spain has taken on more of a presence, but my feeling is that you only need a change in exchange rates or the price of oil to go up and then Spain becomes expensive.”

One of Cornwall’s most iconic products – the Cornish pasty – must surely benefit from supply of local fresh produce. Agricola Growers, based at Torpoint, near Plymouth, is one such supplier, growing potatoes, onions and swede for sister company HF Produce to process and supply to local pasty manufacturers. “We started supplying Ginsters with almost all their vegetables, as well as other major pasty manufacturers, which have in turn diversified into multiple retailers,” says managing director Jeremy Oatey. The company farms 3,000 acres with a mixture of cereals, potatoes, onions, swede and daffodils, with a couple of onion growers in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. It has grown from a £500,000 turnover in 2006 to £5m, continues Oatey, who says the company’s biggest competition is “the farmer bagging up potatoes in the back of his shed”.

While the foodservice sector cannot support some of the larger growers in Cornwall as tourists disappear during winter and the population drops, pasties have a steady year-round demand. Oatey says: “We’ve got quite a big bakery and manufacturing sector down here in Cornwall. In the rest of the UK, a lot of it is driven by price, but provenance is much more important in this part of the world.”

To Brexit or not to Brexit?

Local opinion is divided on the topic of Brexit, according to David Simmons, MD of Riviera Produce. The fact that Boris Johnson recently used the example of British asparagus during a trip to Cornwall to back the Leave campaign suggests there is some support for this among the produce industry, not least from local MP George Eustice. “For us the most important thing is the labour supply, as well as making sure we get EU funding,” says Simmons. “On the pro side, we’re not self sufficient in produce so maybe leaving would give us a chance to expand our own supply.”

South west wholesale thrives

Two companies at Bristol’s thriving wholesale market are investing in new technology and continuing to forge relationships with some of the south west’s finest chefs and independent retailers.

French Garden Bristol has expanded its fleet to five vehicles, and launched a new app that allows customers to browse and order produce in real-time, using photos of exact brands and varieties. “This is a new thing on the market, but we think it is the future. We’ve also introduced flash promotions that are announced via our newsletter,” says sales and marketing manager Dan Purnell. MD Dave Foster (pictured above) is now chairman of the market after being voted in. He says: “We are trying to run the market more efficiently with more recycling and monitoring cleanliness. We’re also putting some boards about the market’s history up in the boardroom.”

Meanwhile, regional director for Total Produce Nick Matthews says the company’s south-west operations are “ticking along”. “The food scene in Bristol is booming, which is good for everyone,” he explains. “In Southampton, we recently bought out P&I and then relocated to an industrial estate, which has worked out really well. We’ve invested a lot in Southampton and that’s going well.” On Total’s well-known acquisition strategy, Matthews says the company will continue to consider acquisitions as and when the right one comes up, but this depends on the mix of companies at each market. “In Birmingham, for example, there is a much bigger cultural mix with a lot of family-run companies, so there may not be the same opportunities for consolidation,” he says. “The ones that come up for acquisition tend to be those who have no family to take over, and have spent their life building up the business and want to cash in.” Matthews is also on the board of directors for the wholesale market and is helping to arrange 100 apprentices across the market to retrain in anything from customer service for receptionists, or driver skills.