Morrisons’ Christmas wonky veg looks ‘promising’

Morrisons test sales of wonky or mis-shapen vegetables at discounted have made a promising start in 75 of its stores in Yorkshire.

Branded a wonky vegetables, the root crops – including potatoes, carrots, onions, and parsnips – are being sold at knock down prices in a bid to cut food waste. The mis-shapen crops all have growth cracks or are much smaller or larger than average-sized produce.

The wonky veg has been discounted by about a third in price to reflect that customers may need to spend extra time peeling them or they might not be able to use the whole vegetable, said Morrisons.

Its produce director Drew Kirk said: “We are testing the sales of these vegetables in 75 stores to ensure that there is genuine demand and initial sales have been encouraging. If customers really like these products, we will roll them out to other parts of the UK.”

Seasonal vegetables were a clear choice for the trial. “Carrots, potatoes and parsnips are often on the Christmas dinner plate,” said Kirk.

‘Giving wonky carrots a home’

“So, we are giving customers the chance to help farmers out by giving their wonky carrots a home. Customers often want their festive meals to look and taste perfect so it is going to be very interesting to see whether they take to these wonky vegetables over the Christmas period.”

The retailer’s trial was part of a wider programme to tackle waste from farm to fork. This included rolling out an initiative that aims to end the waste of edible food in supermarkets by donating it to local community organisations.

Sales in the first week reached about £20,000, with potatoes and onions accounting for most sales. “Initial sales have been promising with sales close to expectations on potatoes, carrots and onions although parsnips were a little off the pace,” according to the retailer.

‘Parsnips were a little off the pace’

Wonky potatoes were sold at £2 for a 5kg bag, onions and carrots are available at 60p in 1.5kg bags and wonky parsnips were sold for £1 for a 1kg bag.

Some of the vegetables were supplied from Morrisons own sorting plant at Flaxby in North Yorkshire and others by Strawsons and Abrey Farms, growers in Nottinghamshire and Suffolk.

Morrisons is the UK’s second largest manufacturer of fresh food.

Last month the retailer marketed what it termed ‘monster sprouts’, which were bigger than golf balls. The sprouts were the biggest for a decade, growing 20% larger than normal.

But the monster sprouts still have the same sweet and mild taste as their smaller sister, claimed Morrisons.

One of the retailer’s east Yorkshire sprout growers John Clappison said: “Our sprout plants have loved the warmer weather. The higher temperatures have made them shoot up and produce the biggest most succulent sprouts that we’ve seen 10 years.”

More than 1,000t of the super-size sprouts will be supplied to the retailer over the winter. The sprout season normally runs until the end of March. The retailer claimed its sprouts took only 48 hours to get from field to store, meaning the supermarket offered “some of the freshest on the market”.