British Carrot Growers Association dig their roots in to launch a National Awareness Day

Chair of the British Carrot Growers Association (BCGA) and York-based carrot farmer Rodger Hobson said: “We want to communicate both the challenges and joys of growing carrots, which has a high disease susceptibility, high input costs and conflictingly low output values, which means making a viable return a struggling reality for UK carrot growers. It’s time to make a bit of noise about the nation’s favourite vegetable - the carrot.”

The BCGA are hoping this national day will help protect the future of the British carrot and its growers.

Carrots are harvested in Britain 12 months of the year, producing over 700,000 tonnes of carrots, that’s equivalent to 70 times the weight of the Eiffel tower.

Due to the natural seasonal weather vagaries, alongside climatic changes, carrot growers are always innovating, developing new management techniques and trialling varieties to compete for survival of the crop.

Rodger explains that profits have been squeezed to such a tight margin, that many farmers have decided to stop growing them.

“This multipurpose vegetable is iconic,” said Rodger. “Carrots are such good value for money and extremely versatile with high nutritional value. I challenge the British public to find anything better value than 6p - the price of a carrot - to consume one of their five a day.”

An International Carrot Day already exists and is celebrated annually in the USA on 4 April. This is out of season for the UK crop, so Britain’s top 5 carrot growers (Huntapac Produce Ltd, Kettle Produce Ltd, M H Poskitts Ltd, Burgess Farms, and Strawson Ltd) decided to cultivate their own special day on 3 October, which is peak harvest time and when the BCGA holds its annual demonstration day.

Every year one of the five big UK carrot growers hosts the event which showcases new varieties, trial plots and brings in speakers to evaluate the future of the sector.

“For us carrot enthusiasts it’s a huge event and we want to share our love of this British-grown vegetable with a wider audience,” explained Rodger, whose favourite way of eating carrots is simply raw and dipped in Houmous.

On National Carrot Day, people will be encouraged to buy, get creative, eat, and cook with carrots. A day to love the carrot, post carrot dishes on social media and add the hashtag: #lovebritishcarrots to your posts.

Follow on Instagram @lovebritishcarrots.

For more information visit the British Carrot Growers Association website: http://britishcarrots.co.uk/