WITH THE asparagus season approaching and the hospitality sector defunct, and with labour shortages in the mix, growers of the crop are having to re-think their sales strategy this year.

At Lunan Bay Farm, in Angus – one of only three asparagus growers in Scotland – the McEwan family, from Inverkeilor, will be ready to harvest their first fully mature crop this May – after a three-year waiting game.

Asparagus growing is highly labour-intensive, but despite the shortages of pickers reported across the UK, Jillian McEwan told the SF that she is hopeful that they have enough support on standby, should they come into difficulty.

“Our harvest is due to begin on May 4 and there are 15 acres of asparagus to be harvested – which should produce around 7500 kg over a six-week picking period,” she said. “We have well-drained, light soil here on the Angus coast which makes for perfect soil conditions.

“As an area, we also have some of the most hours of sunshine in Scotland which benefits the spears. However, they can grow very quickly in a 12-hour period which can be challenging and time-consuming given that everything has to be hand-cut.”

There is a team of 10 pickers ready to harvest their crop, which requires special harvesting knives measuring 20cm to match the desired length of spear and all crop is loaded on to a vintage lightweight David Brown tractor, used to minimise soil compaction.

“If you let spears grow too long then they start to grow in to the fern stage and you ruin your crop for that season,” Dr McEwan stressed. “This is a really labour-intensive process as there is no machine yet which can harvest asparagus.

“We are very lucky to have some extra people lined up to help out with picking who were furloughed from their job – which gives us an extra safety net.”

Although harvesting should still go to plan, finding a market for their produce is the next hurdle the McEwans have to address. “In the last two years, we have taken partial tonnage from our crop so we could test the quality of what we are growing and showcase our offering to potential buyers,” Dr McEwan continued.

“We have mainly been working at farmers markets and with restaurants and chefs across Scotland – who love to showcase locally grown asparagus on their menus – however, this is no longer an option with Covid-19, so we are having to do things differently. It has been a stressful time as we lost 70% of our customers, but on the other hand, greengrocers and farm shops from all over Scotland have been contacting us to sell our produce.”

The family is going to concentrate effort in supplying farm shops and other small independents and are teaming up with food distributors to sell direct to people’s doors in vegetable box deliveries. “Through building our profile on social media, the public has really got behind us and have been recommending our asparagus to local retailers, which has led to new customers to fill the gap which had been left by the food service sector,” she pointed out.

“One positive in all this has been the increase in people sourcing local produce.” Lunan Bay has already seen a 40% increase in demand for asparagus from farm shop customers and they are working with former catering organisations who are now offering essential food boxes.

Dr McEwan added: “Some of these outlets are providing a lifeline to many rural communities – some of whom have no alternative of accessing supplies.”

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