Rapid R

In the commercial department it’s been a challenging start to the year, agreeing retail plans with all our customers. In terms of volume, we are expecting similar demand to last year albeit, with a shorter seasonal window with no sales planned past the middle of July. Continued market inflation has meant conversations with customers have concentrated on getting cost prices to where they need to be, and I am happy with the progress and plans that we have in place.

Last year’s marketing campaign was boosted by the Jamie Oliver partnership, and despite not being able to sign him up for a second year, we have a very strong line up of celebrity chef’s producing bespoke Jersey Royal recipes, short form videos, social media content & the target theme for 2023 is ‘Simply Seasonal’ Jersey Royals in 6 easy steps. With the current economic climate, we wanted to focus on everyday recipes that could be produced simply and cost effectively. The celebrity line-up this year includes both James Martin & Clodagh McKenna who will be producing various video reels and opening up a wider audience base through their socials and TV appearances.

Greenvale Growing Update

By Sean Liddell (Own Growing Manager)

It doesn’t seem that long ago we were getting finished up from harvest and washing all the machinery to put away for the winter. A lot of planning has been going on during the winter months for our 2023 crop, with many a plan getting ripped up and starting again. The war between Russia and Ukraine has had an impact on oil and gas prices which has hit us all personally but as potato growers we are big users of electricity, diesel, and fertiliser to name a few (all of which are related to oil and gas). The purchasing of these products has been difficult to predict and get right as the market has been so volatile, with huge swings in prices. Overall inflation in agriculture is huge and is an ever-moving figure.

Putting pricing aside, both growing hubs have secured the land they require for 2023. Over in the East we are growing in both Norfolk and Suffolk and have a very simplified mix of varieties where we are focusing on salad production with most of our crop being Venezia. We will have a small area of maincrop Jelly. Duns continues to grow in the Scottish Borders and North Northumberland with a slightly wider range of varieties but mainly focusing on the Maris Piper and general white market. This year we are growing a small area for the chipping market which will be sold into paper bags in October and November. At the time of writing (late March) we look back at January and February being very dry with us only receiving half the annual rainfall that we normally would. March has made up for it with us receiving a shower of rain most days. In the east we started planting early March into some beautiful soil conditions. The following week we were hit with some wintery weather. In Scotland we are still waiting patiently for the weather to come right so we can get on with some fertiliser before making a start to planting.

IUK DeCyst Project

Produce Solutions were successful last year in gaining funding from Innovate UK to further the development work being undertaken on the DeCyst range of trap crops. A project consortium, including CHAP, Harper Adams, VCS, and five growers, is looking at a number of agronomic aspects of trap crop growing and, in particular, is looking at a potential new product to the range – DeCyst Podium. Podium is relatively winter hardy and more suited to GB weather conditions. The project is looking to ascertain if Podium could be used after a winter cereal and before a spring planted crop, which would then allow it to be used by many more growers. There was a great deal of interest in the project last year and the BBC sent a team from Midlands Today to film an open day at Harper Adams.

2023 Trials

This year Produce Solutions are running more trials than ever. Ranging from potato cyst nematode trials, to seed treatments, biostimulants, and novel biofumigants. The first of the trials, looking at free-living nematode control, was established in Suffolk, on 13th April by members of the team.