Strawberries go local

Kent grower Andrew Boxall is supplying his strawberry crop direct to three local ASDA supermarkets in the county.

In a pioneering arrangement which matches the ideals of Sir Don Curry’s report on the future of food and farming, Mr Boxall is cutting down on food miles, reducing pollution and supplying the people of Kent with fruit grown in their county.

The supply was arranged between Mr Boxall, Advanced Marketing Services – category managers for all ASDA’s berries and cherries – and Produced In Kent, the Kent County Council initiative. Mr Boxall supplies all the ASDA stores at Kingshill, Ashford and Chatham. “I have the advantage of dealing direct with the produce managers in the stores who are selling the strawberries,” Mr Boxall explained. “I deliver the fruit straight to the stores myself.” He produces about 100 tonnes of strawberries on six acres at Sutton Valence.

The stores estimate what they require on a Friday, and after Mr Boxall has delivered his first load on Monday, the orders may be increased in time for his next journey on Wednesday. When South East Farmer visited, he was delivering about two tonnes of strawberries in 120 trays. He was selling a 454 gram punnet for £1.08p, of which he was receiving £1.00

“The county council is right behind this initiative” said Graham Gibbens, the council’s lead member for regeneration. “When customers see the Produced in Kent label, it means they are buying the best foods from the Garden of England. The grower and the store benefit, so everyone wins.”

Anthony Dobson from Advanced Marketing Services said the company was a marketing desk for UK strawberries with its own 250 acre farm in Portugal. AMS has seven sister companies around the world responsible for sales and procurement within their own countries.

Mr Dobson explained that until recently, Mr Boxall’s fruit had been going to Dartford one of ASDA’s eight regional distribution centres. From there, the strawberries could have gone to thirty stores.

Mr Boxall’s experience is based on a trial run by ASDA in Cornwall where a small group of twenty growers take fruit direct to stores. “It generates an enormous amount of local support” said Mr Dobson who is ASDA account manager for AMS. “People realised the fruit came from just down the road, and this helped to increase sales by more than 200% on the year before the trial began.”

Mr Boxall’s farm is the only Kent grower on AMS’ books. “If we had more growers, we could probablu supply all eight of Kent’s ASDA stores from the start of the season.”

But he warned that direct deliveries would never replace central distribution – mainly because of the time it took growers to deliver fruit to the stores.

Mr Boxall is already talking about increasing his deliveries to two more stores. “I already have enough fruit.”