This year has seen a long run in to Christmas and with Christmas day being on a Sunday it was a slow start to retail sales, according to Stephen McCormack, Managing Director at McCormack Family Farms.
"In the last three days we have seen orders going up by 300% and considering we are in fresh food business we can’t really pack ahead too far and this causes a bit of panic to get all orders filled and delivered."
The three big movers in herbs are the Christmas traditional herbs thyme, parsley and sage. Basil and coriander too, but in general all herb sales increase dramatically in retail for Christmas and New Year sales.
"Foodservice has been very busy for the last three weeks which is great and it’s a real sign people are getting out and enjoying themselves, but talking to wholesalers there is a bit of concern that some restaurants could close their doors in January due to costs and people cutting back on their spending after Christmas, which is the norm, hopefully this won’t happen but it’s it is a big concern.
"Luckily the weather improved in the last week our glasshouse produce as our pea shoots, edible flowers and micro greens sales have been through the roof. Two weeks ago when weather was -2 and lower our heating was on 24 hours a day 7 days a week and light levels were poor during the day so growth was very poor. Fortunately, we didn’t have any real issue where we couldn’t supply, our outdoor crops finished at the end of October and we have been importing from Italy and Spain and there have been no problems with spinach, rocket or other products so far. There is a fear that if a cold spell comes in January we could see short supply from these regions."
Spring is not too far away and Stephen is hoping to get growing outdoors again.
"We plan to keep to much the same plan as we had for 2022. Rising costs in 2022 was a real kick the face and we had to to carry much of the increases ourselves. 2023 is not a year where we can do the same but passing on rising costs is not easy to do, so we are going to have look at where we can save. Staffing is not one, we can't run a business without the right volume of staff, so we really need to look at our efficiencies all over the business. We will need to avoid packaging waste, shop around when buying fertilizer, chemicals and machines for the factory and farm. These are only a few small things to look at, I really think over the last few years we've taken for granted our costs and just accepted them - but not any more."
For more information:
Stephen McCormack
McCormack Farms
Tel: +353 46 902 56 95
stephen@mccormackfarms.ie
mccormackfarms.ie