Members of The British Carrot Growers’ Association have been experiencing very good growth with retail sales (excluding speciality lines) increasing by more than 9% to £235 million and volumes increasing by nearly 5% to 321,000 tonnes.
Carrot grower Tim Bradshaw, a member of the British Carrot Growers Association PR Committee said: "The campaign is really working as more people appreciate the exceptional value of British carrots - not only are they nutritionally healthy, but also taste good and can be used in many different ways which in turn drives demand."
This is partly down to a very cold winter, and an increasing numbers of people cooking from scratch, but is also thanks to PR campaign which in just seven months has generated publicity worth over £1 million.
Mustard Communications Ltd were appointed as the new PR agency in January 2009 and the campaign kicked off in the New Year with a Carrot Calorie (& Credit) Crunch diet, devised by leading nutritionist Juliette Kellow, with new recipe development, media briefings and sample drops.
The latest focus has been the launch of new season carrots and their superior sweet taste and tender skin. The fact that they are harvested in the middle of the night to protect their tender skins from the sun’s harsh rays (and that carrots really do help you see in the dark) provided an ideal news hook and a photo-call and media interviews were set up.
A carrot carnival was also organised with schoolchildren in Norfolk, where farmers laid on a Captain Carrot theatre show, farm tour and tastings of the new season carrots. To mark the harvest, carrot farmers also commissioned a survey to find the nation’s favourite British "carrot top." The winner was TV’s Queen of Mean, Anne Robinson, followed by Prince Harry and Catherine Tate.
