Grower profiles

Table of contents

1. Freshgro
2. Huntapac Produce Ltd
3. Kirstine Dinnes, Grower Manager, Tio Ltd
4. Simon Pearce, Alfred G Pearce Ltd
5. Guy Poskitt, M H Poskitt Ltd

1. Freshgro

A seven-year old co-operative, Freshgro is an example of strength in numbers. In 1999, ten farmers got together to form a dynamic cooperative, which stretches from Penzance to Yorkshire - 2,500 acres of carrots.
"We aim to be innovative," says Managing Director Martin Evans. He himself has a horticultural background, has been MD since the group's inception, and describes himself as 'the gunslinger' of the group! Their headquarters are at Bilsthorpe in Nottinghamshire, and they employ 30 people.
The carrots are sown from October to May, and lifted from late June through to late May. They also grow Chantenay carrots, which are lifted 52 weeks of the year. Added to this is an impressive array of other vegetables, which include parsnips, onions, runner beans, asparagus, salad potatoes, iceberg lettuce, a full range of speciality lettuce including lamb's lettuce, organic swede, cabbage and broccoli.
The market is changing, Evans observes, and therefore they have to change too. "Consumption patterns have changed, and we need to keep up with it. We need to do things differently, promote our products, control costs and be efficient."

2. Huntapac Produce Ltd

By the end of this season in early summer 1,545 acres of carrots from all over the country will have been grown, harvested, washed and packed by Huntapac Produce.
Carrots are sown by Huntapac's own experienced farm staff from January to May, when the early season carrots, having lain under polythene to speed growth, are ready for harvesting. They are lifted during the night and transported to the factory at Tarleton in Lancashire where they will be washed, polished, graded and packed ready for the customer. These early season carrots are harvested by the top-lifting method where they are lifted from the ground by their tops. From October onwards until the end of the season share-lifting is used where the whole bed including the soil is taken.
Huntapac's current Managing Director William Hunter heads the company as his son Warren, along with brother Jason, takes on the day to day running of the business.
Warren tells the background of the company. 'Huntapac was formed in the 1930's by my grandfather William on this site here at Tarleton. He began by supplying a wholesaler in Bury with fresh vegetables and gradually developed the business to supply markets in Lancashire and Yorkshire. In 1967 a new pack house was built here to cope with the increasing demand for high quality produce, and in more recent years investments have seen the site more than double in size and we have become a 24-hour, 364-day-a-year operation.'
The range of produce grown by the firm includes parsnips, caulis, cabbage, lettuce, broccoli and sprouts but carrots account for the majority of sales and are grown in Lancashire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Yorkshire, Worcestershire, Suffolk, Northumberland and Scotland. Huntapac's own harvesting teams began last June in the South of England and have been gradually making their way northward where the season will end near Inverness in late May.
Warren reflects on how different the whole operation is today compared to his grandfather's experiences. 'Years ago carrots were not strawed for winter to give protection against the frost, extra soil was piled on top. The entire crop was share harvested using a Whitstead Harvester and the only washer used was a barrel washer. All the packing was done by hand by six employees.'
Today pre-packing is done automatically and Huntapac now employ over 300 staff.
Warren continues, 'We are always looking to advance the company even further and the next step forward for us may be optical grading using cameras.'
And if anyone needed an excuse to eat more carrots? - Rumour has it that this most popular vegetable was ordered to be eaten by troops during the war to aid their eyesight and night vision!

3. Kirstine Dinnes, Grower Manager, Tio Ltd

Mid Coul Farms, set in the Moray Firth in Scotland, is one of the country's leading growers of organic carrots. Wholly-owned sister company Tio (This is Organics) Ltd handles the packing and distribution of the crops. Tio's Commercial manager Kirstine Dinnes is a bit of an expert when it comes to growing organic carrots.
"As organic farmers, we work with nature", she explains. "Trees, hedges and wide un-farmed field edges are important on organic farms like ours because they provide habitats for natural predators such as beetles, spiders and birds which control pests."
The farm employs various levels of weed control - ranging from the use of stale seedbeds, thermal weeding, both manually steered and computer vision guided mechanical hoes, all the way through to hand weeding. Weed competition is one of the biggest threats to the crop, because carrots struggle to compete against them. As the farm is organic they don't use any chemicals, so mechanical and hand weeding is the only option. "Its one of our biggest production costs - we spend about £480 per acre on weeding and on our scale this gets well into 6 figures", says Kirstine.
And if you are imagining fields full of people on their hands and knees, think again; Tio have a much more 'high-tech' way of weeding their fields… "Rather than having our guys crouching down in the field, we use a specially adapted tractor which has two attachments either side, each holding 16 mattresses on which the weeders lie, face down, and weed the field as the tractor slowly drives around.
The fields are fertilised by rotating the crops, using composted manure and planting crops which naturally feed nitrogen to the soil.
Tio handles around 13,000 tonnes of organic carrots each year and supplies pre-packed organic carrots to some of the major supermarkets all year round. From August to November they supply around 100,000 bunches of carrots, topped with their beautiful green foliage, to the supermarkets.
Kirstine loves the versatility of carrots. "I like to oven roast them as it really brings out their sweet flavour." But, as she says, they're just as good eaten cold and are packed full of goodness and fibre.

4. Simon Pearce, Alfred G Pearce Ltd

Most of us have grown up eating carrots, but Simon Pearce has probably eaten more than most - his family has been growing them in Norfolk since 1959.
Today he and his brother Jonathan run the family business started by his father Alfred over 45 years ago. Back then, the business was limited to selling fresh carrots locally or canning them, as this was the only way of preserving them.
"Things have moved on a lot since then", says Simon. "Nowadays we sell carrots to our customers in every shape and form you could imagine. Cut into batons, shapes, fresh, frozen - you name it, we do it".
But the one thing that hasn't changed is the importance they place on the taste and appearance of their carrots. Since the days when Alfred Pearce sold fresh carrots to his local customers, to today when the company supplies manufacturers up and down the country, flavour is still top of the list.
"Taste is probably the single most important thing to our customers. They are using carrots in their dishes because they give a lovely flavour so many different dishes and, of course, they add fantastic colour."
Based near King's Lynn in Norfolk, Alfred G Pearce Ltd sells around 45,000 tons of carrots every year. The east coast of the UK has historically been a very good area for carrots - from Suffolk and Norfolk right up to East Yorkshire and the East of Scotland - mainly due to the lighter soils and the lower frost temperatures provided by the coastal areas.
So why does Simon love carrots so much? "I love their versatility: there aren't many vegetables that can be grown year-round and it's one of the few vegetables that you can eat hot or cold. It always amazes me when I see where our carrots end up - they are used in anything from carrot cakes to salads, stir fries, ready meals and even baby food."
And his favourite way to eat carrots? "Raw", says Simon, "just grated into a salad - perfect."

5. Guy Poskitt, M H Poskitt Ltd

Guy Poskitt has always been involved in his family's farm - from playing on the farm as a young boy then working on it as a young man. And today he is the driving force behind 4,000 acre farm which is a major supplier of carrots to the UK's supermarkets.
Guy's mother took over the running of the farm when her husband died when Guy was just eight years old. As soon as he had finished his education, Guy took over the running of the farm.
The business has changed a lot over the years. "I've taken the business from producing just 1,500 tons of carrots per year, to over 60,000 tons today", says Guy, justifiably proudly.
The farm was started by his father in the 1950s and initially supplied wholesalers and canners. However, when Guy took over he quickly realized that the opportunities with wholesalers were limited and the way forward was to supply the major retailers.
"I never thought I'd become a business man", laughs Guy. "I thought I'd always be a farmer, but nowadays I can drive a computer much better than a tractor!" He runs his farm as a business that is focused on his customers and market opportunities, rather than a farm based on traditions.
It is still very much family business. Mrs Poskitt senior still works part-time at the farm and Guy's wife Clare manages the financial side of the retail accounts.
"I eat loads of carrots; I eat them raw at my desk all day long", says Guy. And his staff claim they can measure his mood by the amount of carrots he eats - they say that as his stress levels go up, so does the number of carrots he crunches throughout the day!