Raw or cooked, sweet or savoury, carrots are one of the most popular root vegetables consumed in the UK with over 700,000 tonnes grown every year. This is the equivalent to 70 times the weight of the Eiffel tower. On the UK’s National Carrot Day, people will be encouraged to buy, get creative, cook with and eat carrots.
Roger Hobson, chair of the BCGA, said: “It’s time to make a bit of noise about the nation’s favourite vegetable – the carrot. We are making a rallying call to the nation. If every household nibbles their way through just a few more carrots each year it would be a huge help to farmers and help keep home-grown carrots on the shelves.”
“We want to communicate both the challenges and joys of growing carrots, which has a high disease susceptibility, high input costs and a conflictingly low price on the supermarket shelf, which means making a viable return a struggling reality for UK carrot growers. Boosting consumption by even small volumes, across many homes, will support the farmers and keep domestically grown carrots firmly planted in the UK.”
