•
NEWS
•
THE
VEGETABLE
FARMER •
MAY 2018
Last month, Asda put its
1000th tonne of ‘wonky’ carrots
on the shelf – attesting to their
customers’ acceptance of less-
than-perfect fruit and vegetables.
In 2015, Asda was the first
retailer to introduce wonky
carrots as part of a trial to see if
customers would be open to
eatingmisshapen (but still great
tasting) produce, in a bid to
reduce foodwaste on farms. The
great reception to the produce
led to the retailer introducing its
Wonky vegetable box in 2016, a
box filledwith 5kg of vegetables
for just £3.50. Two years on, the
box is still flying off shelves and
has contributed to over 300
tonnes of additional misshapen
vegmaking it to the supermarket.
Ian Harrison, Asda’s produce
technical director, said; “The
introduction of the wonky range
taught us that customers are
more than open to a crooked
carrot or a blemish and a bruise
here and there. We knew the
introduction of wonky vegwas
benefitting farmers and
contributing to the reduction of
foodwaste, but it alsomade us
realise howmuch further we
could go. We decided to look at
our specifications across the
board in the produce aisle,
startingwith carrots.”
Typically, Asda allowed 10% of
carrots with cosmetic defects on
to its shelf as part of its Grower’s
Selection range. This number was
increased to 40% inMay 2017,
meaning 690 tonnes of
misshapen carrots have been sold
as part of the retailer’s Growers
Selection range in the last year
alone.
Ian, continued: “A cosmetic
defect can be a blemish on the
carrot, slight discolouration or a
funny shape. We know that none
of these things affect the great
taste of the product and that
customers aremore than happy
to put misshapen produce in to
their shopping baskets, so
relaxing our specifications was
absolutely the right thing to do
for both customers and our
farmers.”
Leading root producers
Huntapac Produce, based near
Preston in Lancashire, published
their accounts recently for the
year ended 30th June 2017.
They reported a slightly reduced
turnover of £41.3million
compared to £43.1million in
the previous year. Pre-tax profits
also dropped from £2.27
million to £425,620.
Their revenue from the sale of
fresh packed vegetables went
down by 4.64%with this drop
beingmainly caused by a
decrease in volume as the
company had been temporarily
covering volumes from a
competitor during the previous
year.
Regarding its operating
profit, Huntapac stated that
2016 had been an exceptional
year for growing their speciality
crops of root vegetables and
that they expected to increase
their produce volume
“significantly” this year as they
have won a new supply
contract.
Also, in 2017, the company
had invested heavily in new
plant and agricultural
machinery plus additional staff
in order tomeet the demands
of this new contract.
6
Huntapac Produce’s
sales and profits dip
ASDA celebrates 1000th tonneof carrots saved fromwaste
Grower-ledmonitoring to add increased value to AHDB Pest Bulletin
As the Pest Bulletin is set to
make its return for 2018,
growers will be at the heart of
monitoring to tackle the
diamondback moth ‘super
pest’.
This year, a new grower-led
initiative will promote better
regional monitoring of
diamondback moth. UK
Brassica growers aremonitoring
populations across Cornwall,
Devon, Warwickshire,
Lincolnshire, Yorkshire,
Lancashire and Fife, with the
first sighting report coming in
fromWest Sussex.
Dr Rosemary Collier, Director
of Warwick Crop Centre,
University of Warwick and
recent winner of the prestigious
RHS VeitchMemorial Medal for
her outstandingwork in
horticulture, said; “This year
there will be evenmore
detailed information on pest
moths, particularly
diamondback moth, as a result
of the new cropmonitoring
initiative led by UK Brassica
growers.
“Themass invasion of
migrant diamondback moths in
2016 showed how important it
is to keep up-to-date withwhat
is happening nationally and
internationally with such a
potentially devastating pest and
we now have good evidence
that it can survive our winter
weather – in south-west
England at least.”
Hosted by Syngenta on their
website, the AHDB Pest Bulletin
provides growers with essential
pest forecasts and up-to-date
reports onmost of the key field
crop pests, indicating periods
when infestations are likely to
occur, to help growers make
informed pest control decisions.
Data is collected from various
locations around the UK, giving
regional information, as well as
historical data to provide year-
on-year comparisons of pest
numbers.
The results of the grower-led
diamondback mothmonitoring
will be published on a weekly
basis as part of the Pest
Bulletin. Sponsored by FMC,
this is an opportunity for
growers to share their findings
on diamondback moth from
across the UK.
Weekly Pest Bulletin alerts are
an opt-in only service;
/
pestbulletin
