Caulif lowers galore as bumper crop hits shelves

FAMILIES are being advised to pick up a cauliflower this week in a bid to prevent thousands being dumped.

An early bumper ‘crop flush’ of caulis has left farmers struggling to find buyers.

Tesco has stepped in with an offer to buy an extra 220,000 surplus cauliflowers and is radically reducing its prices in stores – from £1 to 79p.

But unless families make room for a cauliflower in their fridge and on the dinner table, huge numbers will be ploughed into the ground.

The veg is hugely versatile and the options go way beyond simply boiling it up or making a cauliflower cheese.

Some retailers have created cauliflower rice as a low carb alternative to the real thing, others have provided thick slices as a vegetarian alternative to beefburgers.

The veg can also be dressed with curry and other spices to bring new tastes and textures to the evening meal.

Earlier this month, it was reported that a farm in Kent was being forced to dump an astonishing £60,000 worth of

the cauliflowers because it could not find a buyer for them. Some 40 acres of cauliflowers grown at a farm in Broadstairs, Kent, was set to go to waste while at the same time some retailers were selling imported crops that had been shipped in from Spain.

David Daniels, category buying manager at Tesco, said: ‘Customers will see more British cauliflowers in Tesco, at a bonus price, as we help our suppliers reduce farm food waste.

‘We’ve been talking to our cauliflower suppliers for weeks about how the mild winter may affect their crops. Unseasonably good growing conditions have accelerated the growth of cauliflowers and so the crop has matured early.

‘We use advanced forecasting and ordering systems, but at certain times of the year our farmers see bumper crops. Farmers call these moments “crop flushes”. Weekly, we sell over 400,000 cauliflowers but this month we will take a further 220,000 from our producers who have seen a peak, following a mild winter.’

Other bumper crops in the past year have included strawberries, cherries and lettuce.