Record-breaking summer temperatures across Europe have meant increased sales of fruit and vegetables in stores; and sales have been aided by customers going on fruit and vegetable diets to help them lose weight and look good on holiday.
Even in Scotland, (traditional meat eaters), a recent report recorded a 3.9% increase in sales of vegetables. Add to this the fashion for detoxing, with a diet based on fruit and vegetables – and the only thing holding back sales in outlets this summer seemed to be availability of the fruit and vegetables.
Transport
Availability can give headaches, as getting these highly perishable commodities into the stores in peak condition is a major problem. But to overcome costs and logistics, massive goods trains now crisscross Europe, delivering fresh produce direct from growers; tight cost control during distribution ensures goods can be supplied at lower prices. The giant distribution company’s DB Schenker Rail UK section currently operates three direct international intermodal services – one of which is managed by sister company Transfesa.
According to Jonathan Bailey, International Market Manager for the Logistics Business Segment of DB Schenker Rail UK, the Transfesa service operates times per week between Valencia (Spain) and Dagenham in England, and this is likely to increase to four times per week in the near future. This division of the company also operates five trains per week from Domodossola in Italy (North of Milan) to the UK. Four of these run to Hams Hall and one runs to Barking. There is also a twice-weekly shuttle rail service running between Domodossola and Padova. The other service Schenkers run is the Poland service – twice a week between Wroclaw and Barking, in England. The Valencia service carries various fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from Spain; however in this case the primary lane is Southbound running new car engines for Ford’s production down in Valencia.
The Italian services carry largely FMCG, consisting of ambient food products, beer, wines and spirits, and also other products such as cosmetics. There are also some containers conveying adhesives, and steel products going from the UK back to Italy. The Poland services have a variety of furniture products, building materials, automotive components and also various FMCG. DB Schenker Rail UK (the British off-shoot of the giant distribution company) has been involved in International services since the channel tunnel was built (formerly as EWS International). As the business has evolved under DB Schenker Rail, to offer a true Pan-European network, they have been able to take advantage of economies of scale to deal directly with key retailers in developing their own door-to-door solutions, which offers the market a true reliable, cost effective and sustainable product.
Currently DB Schenker Rail UK containers deliver either direct to the customers’ distribution centre, or direct to the customer stores / supermarkets. To make international rail transport even more interesting, there is a new service operating from China to Hamburg, Germany. Taking 15 days instead of the 30 days upwards of container shipping, this obviously has potential for perishable food items.
Bad News
However, this is not such good news for growers in the destination countries concerned, especially in countries such as Britain. After several poor growing seasons, 2013 saw superb growing weather, which made British farmers breathe a sigh of relief. Commercial growers even announced they had produced viable crops of exotic fruits such as melons and apricots for sale, now making use of polytunnels, used to grow early strawberry crops, to raise a second crop, such as melons. In the Victorian days, rich landowners employed gardeners, who constructed special glass frames capable of growing these fruit;
Lord Barnard at Raby Castle, and other rich land owners, built hollow walls around gardens, with stoves that directed warm air or heated water through pipes, to raise the temperature for fruit growing up the wall – but today’s supermarket customer wouldn’t pay the cost of growing fruit this way. However, using polytunnels to provide shelter and raise temperatures, growers in Britain are confident that their crops will have the added advantage of being picked when ripe; Marks and Spencers, Morrison and Co-op customers are set to benefit if all goes well with these experiments.
Apricots
Once, these were only grown in southern climes, and regarded as an imported luxury in Britain and other northern countries. A few were grown in hot houses, and one British village, Aynho, with a warm microclimate prided itself on being known as the apricot village. Here bushes were trained to grow up cottage walls, and feudal dues were paid in the fruit. Apricot trees flower in February – earlier than most fruit trees – making them vulnerable to frost. Because there are so few insects in the British winter, growers have to work with self-pollinating varieties to develop fruit. The new crop has been grown in Kent for Sainsbury’s, and comes from new self-fertilising varieties of trees grown commercially in the open for the first time.
“Our fruit growers are using technology and their expertise to turn Kent into the English Mediterranean,” said Theresa Huxley, the store’s product technologist. Now warmer summers have opened the way for apricots to be grown in other areas on Britain, and England’s first major commercial crop of apricots has jut gone on sale, the result of warmer summers and improved growing techniques. It has been a good season for soft fruit such as strawberries and raspberries, so growers are now hoping for good conditions to encourage a bumper English apple crop – and obviously will be facing stiff completion from Spanish and Italian growers, who would find train transport tailor-made to deliver their crops to the Northern markets.
Herbs
Now herbs are taking up increased space in stores; herbs grown in pots (a new innovation in the past decade), frozen herbs, starting to make their way into store freezer cabinets. Frozen Herbs are so popular that now Waitrose have their own lines, in distinctive tinfoil packs; mint, parsley and all the popular herbs being represented. The newest innovation is herbs in a tube – a squeezable paste containing the herbs – and produced by a company called Gourmet Garden. These are particularly useful as a stand-by to make winter soups.
As Gourmet Garden say, the great thing about soups is you don’t need a long list of ingredients – just some stock, your favourite vegetables and clever standbys such as Gourmet Garden’s range of herb and spice pastes –to create a satisfying and nutritious bowl for supper. Whereas bunches of fresh herbs only last a few days, Gourmet Garden herbs keep fresh for weeks. Their range includes Coriander, Basil, Parsley, as well as essential kitchen staples such as Garlic, Chili and Ginger. All are organically grown, picked and packed without any preservatives to retain their fresh flavour and natural colour, and come in handy squeezy tubes, retailing around GBP 1.70. Customers find it easy to add a tablespoon of Gourmet Garden Coriander and Ginger to a carrot soup, or Garlic to Broccoli soup. Even stirring in some Basil when opening a can of tomato soup will help.
Waitrose Farm Shop
The old saying is: if you can’t beat them, join them. And Waitrose seems to be doing just that. They have opened the UK’s first Farm Shop owned by a supermarket, in Hampshire, on their own Estate at Leckford. As well as selling Waitrose-grown produce and their own meat, the store is also sourcing produce from 60 local growers. At the moment this store is a stand-alone outlet, but no doubt if successful could be rolled out as an in-store facility in other outlets. As well as stocking products from the John Lewis-owned farm who own Waitrose, the shop has sourced goods from more than 60 suppliers in the region. Leckford is a working farm producing arable crops, apples, pears, apple juice, cider and chestnut mushrooms as well.
The 165 square metre shop will have a strong emphasis on locally and regionally sourced food, with the bulk of the products coming from within a 30-mile radius of the estate. There is no doubt that the current credit crunch has introduced a more up-market customer to stores, and other supermarket chains are keeping an eye on sales, to see how successful Waitrose is in attracting this high-spending client. This type of customer is choosier about where their shopping is sourced, and wants to know the provenance of the goods on which they feed their families.
And has the time to enquire, and the money to pay for high quality produce. To satisfy this high-spending segment, supermarkets are taking steps to improve links with farmers; Tesco recently poached a senior executive from the National Farmers’ Union. Britain’s largest retailer appointed Tom Hind, corporate affairs director at the National Farmers Union (the association to which most farmers and growers belong), as director of agriculture – a new role designed to improve Tesco’s relationship with farmers and growers.
Gin and other spirits
Many customers are keen to go back to basics, making their own speciality products. Some outlets have taken advantage of this, and suggested that people make their own fruit spirits. In Britain this can take the form of Raspberry Vodka, or Damson Gin, and are very simple to make, but producing spectacular result. Different outlets often feature any suitable fruit of which there is a glut; customers like making these, as it takes little time for spectacular results with which to impress friends; and the store sells a high-value bottle of spirits along with the fruit.
Foraging in the Hedgerows
Stores have realized that customers remember how as children their parents would take them foraging for Autumn produce in hedgerows: mushrooms, nuts etc. Several years ago British supermarkets tested the market by offering nuts, picked whilst still young or ‘green’. These sold so well that ‘wet’ walnuts and cob nuts (young hazel nuts) are now regulars on the vegetable shelves, and are sold at a premium. “One thing that happens if you have a bad year is that plants want to make up”, says Colin Crosby, curator at Britain’s Royal Horticultural Society Garden at their showcase centre at Wisley. After a wet autumn and cold winter in 2012, the hot summer of 2013 has produced bumper crops to make up for this. This is good news, and means growers are expecting a record harvest for apples and pears this Autumn.