What We Do
Our mission is to support our growers to do what they do best. We achieve this in a number of different ways. British Growers provides its members with a centralised shared administrative, accountancy, book keeping service, public relations and event management services. British Growers also offers a specialist administration and advisory service for Producer Organisations. Our unique shared services model allows each organisation to access as much or as little of our services as they need to function effectively. Each organisation then bears its share of the costs based on level of usage.
British Growers provides representation for the fresh produce sector. We work closely with other major organisations including Defra, the NFU and AHDB. The decision to exit the EU has created a both opportunities and challenges for UK growers. British Growers is actively involved in representing the industry on labour and immigration issues, productivity, future trade agreements, supply chain fairness and a wide range of other issues affecting UK growers.
British Growers is closely involved with the promotion of fresh produce. We work with a number of agencies on the promotion of specific crops and with the Food Foundation and the Veg Power initiative to promote the consumption of vegetables as part of a healthy and balance diet.
British Growers also runs a subsidiary operation, ProduceView, which gathers retail pricing data from all the major retailers on a weekly basis and then provides a comprehensive overview of weekly prices, in store fruit and veg lines, promotional offers and country of origin details.
PO’s & Collaboration
Since our foundation in 1969 British Growers Association have been constant advocates of coordination, collaboration and cooperation amongst Farmers and Growers.
We have established and had recognised nine POs under the current scheme, and have been directly involved in the merger and creation of three consolidated POs since 1996.
We provide a complete PO management and organisational package to members. We maintain strong and productive working relationships with RPA and Defra. British Growers sit on the RPA’s Expert Panel advising and consulting Government on the efficient running of POs in UK.
Crop Associations
The crop associations are grower led and grower financed and support the commercial activities of UK based growers. With over 300 different crops produced by growers across the UK, a Crop Association is a very effective way of co-ordinating and focusing activity. It is vital that as many growers as possible contribute to their relevant association to ensure each crop is effectively promoted and represented.
Crop Associations play a vital role in the production and development of individual crops. The primary roles of a Crop Association are to:
- Promote consumption
- Influence UK and EU regulation
- Collect and disseminate industry data and information
- Co-ordinate industry relevant research
- Promote knowledge transfer through a range of events
The recognition of our wide skills and experience led British Growers to offer its capabilities to horticultural crop associations during the 1980’s.
We now provide the complete strategic planning, organisational support, co-ordination, secretariat, event/conference production service, accounts and crisis management.
As you will see from the list below these vary across the UK, from turfgrass to summer fruits, both field and protected cropping. We provide a varying degree of depth and involvement depending on the needs of the crop group. We are able to catalyse collaboration between growers when necessary as the sharing of best practice is extremely useful.
We maintain very strong working relationships with other crop associations with the aim of providing a united voice for British Growers on issues of joint concern. The crop associations that we work directly with now extends to 14 different crops:
- Asparagus Growers Association
- Baby Leaf Growers Association
- Brassica Growers Association
- British Carrot Growers Association
- British Herb Trade Association
- British Leafy Salad Association
- British Onions
- British Summer Fruits
- English Apples & Pears
- Mushroom Growers Association
- Outdoor Cucurbit Grower Group
- Rhubarb Growers Group
- Plant Propagators Ltd
- The Leek Growers Association
- Turfgrass Growers Association
Market Intelligence
“Suppliers of fresh produce retail information in the UK. We survey the major supermarkets every week and provide analytic tools to category managers.”
Every week our subsidiary company Market Intelligence Service, ProduceView, provides online price and point of sale information that covers all retailers. It is a vital service to category managers and offers an accessible affordable solution for in store information. The ProduceView website provides a tool to category managers to make their lives easier and provide relevant, timely and reliable data so they can provide a service to their customers.
The Market Intelligence Service has evolved over more than 20 years into a vital part of over fifty companies’ weekly category management strategy. The retail sector evolves very quickly and the ProduceView service reacts to it. ProduceInsights gives subscribers even more ways to look at the weekly information.
For those who just want the data only and do not need the analytical insights there is ProduceLite a weekly spreadsheet from the relevant category sector delivered to subscribers mailboxes every Tuesday.
For more details, contact the team on 01507 353796 or email info@produceview.co.uk.
Promotion & Representation
British growers of Salads, Vegetables and Fruit have a great story to tell and have much of which to be proud of.
Horticulture is an independent and resourceful sector of the wider food manufacturing industry. Producers have long been famed for creating technically advanced, scientifically progressive and environmentally responsible businesses. Delivery of high quality, safely produced, tasty and abundant foods for our UK consumers is what drives our members.
British Growers exist to make sure that producers’ voices are heard and that Consumers, Government and Media can be accurately informed and aware of all aspects of the industry. We expect to positively engage on behalf of our stakeholders. Promotion and representation of the British Growing industry is at the heart of what we do.
See News section for examples of recent activity.
