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Birds Eye casts East Anglian pea growers adrift
FROZEN food giant Birds Eye has made a shock decision to cease sourcing peas from East Anglia with immediate effect.
The company, which describes itself as one of Britain and Ireland’s best loved brands, was supplied by 180 growers in the region.
Suppliers were informed of the decision on Wednesday morning, only weeks before they were due to sow the 2010 crop.
Birds Eye blamed the decision on the loss of an overseas contract. A Birds Eye spokesperson said: “It is with great regret that due to the recent and sudden loss of a substantial export contract with an Italian business, we are to cease pea production in the Lowestoft area.
We have informed our grower and processing partners in Lowestoft and the five members of our agricultural team who will be affected. We will be working with them to minimise the impact.”
Norfolk grower Richard Hirst, who chairs Anglian Pea Suppliers, which supplied the company, said the growers had been left in the lurch.
“I am absolutely flabbergasted. This came completely out of the blue and will have a huge impact on growers in the region,” said Mr Hirst, who had been growing 50-60 hectares of peas each year.
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Readers' comments (4)
Anonymous | 4 February 2010 10:10 am
I can't believe that the loss of the Italian contract can cause such an impact, surely they don't export such large quantities of peas to Italy.
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Anonymous | 4 February 2010 11:47 am
I was interested to read the Birds Eye commission research ‘Changing Plates’ (Aug 2009) that was compiled by the University of Oxford. According to this research, the economic downturn has resulted in an increase in dining at home and the popularity of frozen foods. Why then, when the consumer is purchasing more frozen products such as peas, are Birds Eye cutting the UK production?
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Anonymous | 4 February 2010 4:35 pm
When Birdseye was part of Unilever it supplied peas to it's Italien counterpart.
This continued when Birdseye was sold to Primera. Birdseye still has it's massive pea operation in East Yorkshire.
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Anonymous | 10 March 2010 12:24 pm
Why do they now source chicken from asia & south america??? Cost!!
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