Vitacress celebrates record herb sales with media day

Vitacress welcomed food writers and bloggers to an event focused on herb trends and new varieties, hosted with Jekka McVicar at her herb farm in Bristol.

Sales of fresh herbs have reached record levels, with parsley being the herb of the moment, experiencing the biggest spike in sales of any herb. Sales of flat leaf parsley are up by 37 per cent this year, to a record level of 14,152,000 packs, pots and bunches.

Leading herb expert Jekka McVicar, works with Vitacress as an ambassador and advisor on new varieties. Her herb farm is the largest collection of culinary herbs in the UK. A selection of journalists and bloggers were taken on a tour of the farm and were able to see, smell and taste a wide variety of unusual herbs.

Simon Conway, managing director of Vitacress then talked to the attendees about current herb trends and the record breaking year that fresh herbs have had in terms of sales.

Coverage from the event has appeared in The i newspaper, The Times, Daily Telegraph website and Daily Mirror.

Tony Reid, head of marketing at Vitacress said: “There have been some really interesting developments in the fresh herb market this year, notably the huge increase in sales of flat leaf parsley. We wanted to share these insights with the media in a fun and informative day. Jekka’s herb farm, with its unrivalled number of herb varieties, was the perfect location.”

The event forms part of Vitacress’ Herbilicious campaign which focuses on inspiring and engaging consumers with fresh herbs, tapping into healthy eating and world food trends.

To support the activity, Vitacress is working with leading bloggers, including Danielle Martin from the successful healthy eating blog ‘Hungry, Happy, Healthy’ who has prepared a herb pairing guide. Vitacress is also providing herbs to blogger Kerstin Rogers, known online as ‘Ms Marmite Lover’, for recipe development and events.

Katie Caldesi, a cookery writer, restauranteur and author, has provided four recipes from her book ‘Around The World in Salads’, as well as a guest blog on world cuisine and the roles fresh herbs play.