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Tasty locally grown strawberries are now being stocked by The Channel Islands Co-operative Society and will be on the shelves an hour after they are picked.
As a local business, the Society has a long association with local suppliers supporting more than 40 across the islands who provide products including dairy, fruit, vegetables, salad, herbs, alcohol, coffee and bakery products. The Society pays £11m for the supply of local goods each year.
This summer they have added two local produce growers – Linards Mellis will be supplying soft fruit to all stores and Paul Petit will deliver tomatoes to Grand Marché St Sampson.
The Society’s chief marketing officer, Greg Yeoman said: "We are a local business, we are part of the community and we are the biggest supporter of local suppliers in the Channel Islands.
"We were excited to hear that someone locally was producing a quality product like this on a commercial scale and even more so that we are able to have this product in our stores to give islanders a locally produced alternative. The buzzwords in retail at the moment are about air miles, but certainly in the case of our St Martin’s store, we are talking about metres here. The fact that we can have a seasonal local product on the shelves an hour after they have been picked is great."
The 250g strawberry punnets include the Guernsey flag on the label to ensure they are easily identifiable.
Mr Mellis, who grows at three glasshouse sites spread across 2.5 hectares in Guernsey, said he was delighted with the support from the Society. He employs five full-time staff and expects to take on up to another five part-time staff during the peak season.
Mr Mellis said: "My parents and grandparents had grown produce and I hadn’t planned for it to be my career but I saw all the greenhouses, which were stood empty and I wanted to make use of them. I started off quite small and then have grown the business from there.
"The support from the Co-op has been fantastic. I cannot really thank them enough because their support will help me expand my business. It’s also very good for Guernsey consumers to have local produce."
He will also be supplying raspberries and kiwiberries, which are like kiwi fruit but don’t need peeling, to Co-operative stores across the island in the coming weeks.
Up to 30 tonnes of strawberries and up to seven tonnes of raspberries will be supplied to the Society by Mr Mellis, while the kiwiberries are a new product. Mr Mellis is also hoping to expand his business next year, and is looking at honey berries to see whether they will grow locally.
Mr Petit will be supplying loose round tomatoes to the Grand Marché St Sampson store. Up until now, he has exported his tomatoes and sold some locally as hedge veg. Now no longer exporting, this will be the first time that he has supplied the Co-op and he hopes that it will be the start of a long-term relationship.
