After the weather chaos seen last year, most brassica growers are enjoying average or better-than-average crops.
Nigel Clare of Lincolnshire-based Peloton Produce has told FreshPlaza that mild weather in early November has led to plenty of crop, but also subdued consumer demand.
“We have an abundance of cauliflower,” said Nigel. “The conditions have been very mild; I expect that by Christmas we will be around 25% through our Winter predicted harvest. We have finished our broccoli harvest now and will move onto Spanish supply over the coming days, so with excellent volumes of cauliflower and broccoli it is a totally different year to this time last year.”
However, he warned that forward crops now could cause a gap in programmes after Christmas. “Kale is also going well, as are Savoy, red and white cabbage,” he continued. “The demand for winter vegetable has been steady, but the mild temperatures don’t encourage people to buy into the Brassica category, so we have been very active in promotional activity to try and boost sales. Demand across the board is down between 8-15% down without promotional activity which is a concern, however I am confident a cold snap will change this as we move into the later part of December.”
