Convoy working round the clock

CROP: East Coast Viners’ convoy of seven viners working around the clock

The east coast’s precision pea harvest is in full swing, with huge vining machines cutting a swathe through thousands of acres between Auchterarder and Stonehaven.

East Coast Viners (ECV) managing partner Graham Forbes, said around a third of the company’s 8,000-acre harvest had been completed and yields were reasonable so far.

“Everything is dependent on weather but if we carry on as we are at present it’s going to be a good season,” he added.

The ECV crop is harvested by a convoy of seven £400,000 viners which work round the clock to ensure the peas are picked in prime condition.

The crop is then processed in a purpose-built factory on Dundee’s Kingsway, where the peas are cleaned, washed, blanched and frozen within 150 minutes of leaving the fields.

The frozen peas are sold in all the major supermarkets.

Mr Forbes said peas have been grown in the area for at least 50 years.

“The crop is popular with farmers as it’s the best break crop you can get.

“We grow peas on 1,000 of our own acres and the rest of the land is rented from 200 farmers,” he said.

“It’s a precision operation and the tenderness of the product is critical.

“If the peas are too hard they have to be harvested later in the season by a combine and they end up as animal feed. “It’s a high risk business.” ECV jointly owns the processing factory, Dundee Cold Stores, with Bruce Farms of Meigle which is a similar scale operation, both in land rented and machinery used.

Bruce Farms said their vining was 25% complete and “going day and night and in most weather conditions”.

Picture: Kim Cessford. One part of the convoy in operation.