The Rural Voice, 2004-09, Page 31brand, it exists," says Dickinson.
"You buy brands or buy the
company."
While Heinz remains the largest
name -brand processor of canned
beans, Premier's own brands,
combined with the number of beans
produced for all U.K. retailers' own
labels, makes it the largest bean
processor overall. "Everybody (all
supermarket chains) packs or sells
baked beans because just about
everybody eats them."
The convenience food division of
the company has four canneries, two
canning and two producing products
in glass such as fruits and pickles.
The canning division processes a
billion pounds of raw material into
700,000 tonnes of finished product
annually.
While some products from
fresh fruits and vegetables
are produced only
seasonally, beans are a crop that can
be processed year round.
Fresh product is all contracted
directly with growers and all crops
are assured quality certified. The
protocol tracks the crop right from
seed to harvest with recording of
such things as pesticides used.
"That's what the consumer and the
retail trade demand and that's what
we demand," he says.
Some farmers feel they should be
rewarded with higher prices for this
assurance system but Dickinson says
the reality is that if you don't
produce at these standards you will
be trying to sell your crop into
second and third class markets — if
you can find a buyer — and you will
receive less money.
Premier's canneries start the
season with 4,000 tonnes of rhubarb
followed by 15,000 tonnes of peas,
20,000 tonnes of carrots, 10,000
tonnes of potatoes and 6,000 tonnes
of onions, with Dickinson in charge
of buying it all.
"I know something about
contracting growers," Dickinson said,
"and what I can say from meeting
growers in the last couple of days
here is I'd really like to take them
back to the U.K."
The company processes 60,000
tonnes of pulses a year, with 45,000
tonnes of that being navy or white
beans. (Britain consumes 100,000
tonnes of beans a year, by far the
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