Plan B Forum

Cornish pasty producers are worried they may have to put up their prices because of a big increase in the cost of raw ingredients.



Some pasty makers are paying almost three times as much for locally-grown potatoes than they were last year.

The price of West Country beef and onions - two staple pasty ingredients - has also risen.

Avice Gill, who runs Aunt Avice's Pasty Shop in St Kew Highway, said the rise in the cost of raw ingredients was "hurting" her business.

"A bag of potatoes which was £5.50 last year costs £14 this year," she said.

"Being a small business it does hurt - we're just a little backwater shop."

The Potato Council said a reduced crop in 2012 meant prices had risen by 216% compared with the same period last year.

Ruth Huxley, of Cornwall Food and Drink, said the past 12 months had been "unparalleled" in terms of difficulties for growers and producers.

"Ingredient costs have undergone significant increases in the last six months and some businesses are struggling to pass those increases on because spending power of the average household hasn't increased by the same proportion," she told BBC News.

The manager of one pasty shop in South East Cornwall said her locally-grown potatoes now cost "three times as much as last year" and she was anticipating having to put up her prices.

"The season hasn't been great for farmers and that has had a knock-on effect for everyone," she said.

Julia Barnett, from Bodmin-based Barnett Fare, which supplies around 20,000 products a week around the country, said: "It's all Cornish potatoes we use and because of the weather conditions we're now paying around £11 for a vat of pre-washed potatoes."

She said the cost of West Country beef had also risen because the horsemeat scandal had increased consumer demand for beef.

"We've absorbed some of the rise but we're now looking at our costs carefully," she added.

Rob Vingoe, from Berryman's bakery which has four shops in Cornwall, said rising food costs were "more of an issue" than the so-called "pasty tax" of 20% VAT on hot food.

The Cornish Pasty Association said that even if it was possible to source cheaper ingredients outside the Duchy, to make a "proper" Cornish pasty it was important to use local ingredients.

Cornwall's normally mild climate means the county is particularly suitable for growing early potato crops and they have been widely grown since the mid 1700s, when the potato and pilchard were the staple diet of most working Cornishmen and their families.

Edward Richardson, farming advisor for Farm Cornwall, said farmers had told him the Cornish potato crop for this year was "about a month behind".

He said: "Normally this part of Cornwall will be starting to harvest before anyone else does at the end of April or beginning of May."

He said the late harvest was down to a combination of late planting because of bad weather and the cold winter preventing seeds germinating.

Potato farmer Richard Thomas, of Trevear Farm in Sennen, said: "Growth has been so slow and soil temperature has been so low, we have not had growing conditions that suggest we're going to get a bumper yield.

"We've come through a full calendar year of unseasonal weather. All the crops have suffered."

2 large leek diced, including the leek green
1 onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons butter
250g large diced potatoes, par cooked
500g mulloway chopped into cubes (or ling, jewfish)
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/4 cup grated aged cheddar cheese
1 teaspoon chopped French tarragon
Salt and pepper to taste

1 packet puff or flaky pastry
egg and a little milk to seal the pastry
Method

Lightly fry off onion and leek in the butter. Add the fish cubes and cook about a third through. Deglaze with vinegar. Set aside and cool.

Roughly smash the potatoes after they are par cooked with a ladle or big spoon, season with salt and pepper. Fold in the cheese and the tarragon, and then mix this together with the fish mixture into a clean cool bowl.

Grease ramekins, either individuals or for 2 or 4, fill with the fish mixture and cool in the fridge for around 10 minutes.
[You can make Cornish style pasties or a long pastie roll if you prefer.]

Cut circles of pastry and pop onto the ramekins, seal the pastry with egg wash and bake at 220C on the top shelf of the oven until golden brown - about 15-20 minutes.

What is a PGI?

Since 1993, the European Union (EU) has provided a framework that gives legal protection for named regional food products against imitation across the EU. This framework is important because it aims to protect and promote regional food products and rural economies that can become vulnerable as the EU expands and regional markets move to national and international supply chains.

A Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) is one of three European designations created to protect regional foods that have a specific quality, reputation or other characteristics attributable to that area. It acts like a Trade Mark or ‘Appellation Controllee’ and stops manufacturers from outside a region copying a regional product and selling it as that product.

The Cornish pasty was awarded PGI status in 2011 which means that only Cornish pasties made in Cornwall and following the traditional recipe can legally be called ‘Cornish pasties’.

Are my Cornish pasties genuine?

A genuine Cornish pasty has a distinctive ‘D’ shape and is crimped on one side, never on top. The filling for the pasty is made up of uncooked minced or roughly cut chunks of beef (not less than 12.5%), swede, potato and onion with a light seasoning. The pastry casing is golden in colour, savoury, glazed with milk or egg and robust enough to retain its shape throughout the cooking and cooling process without splitting or cracking. The whole pasty is slow-baked to ensure that flavours from the raw ingredients are maximised. No artificial flavourings or additives must be used. And, perhaps most importantly, it must be made in Cornwall.

Gob wrote:Lamb? Lamb? LAMB? IN A PASTY????

Lord Jim wrote: I made four of them, (just to see how they would turn out) and then I went ahead and made twenty more and froze most of them...

Were they all the size of the pasty in the picture Gob posted?...

The amount of money being turned over from Cornish pasty making has almost doubled since 2005 to about £300m annually, according to figures.

More than 120m pasties are produced per year, Cornwall Food and Drink said.

It comes as organisers of a Cornish event in London later hope it could spark millions of pounds worth of investment into the county.

The event "Cornwall Calling" at the Tate Britain is being hosted by Cornwall Community Foundation.

Ruth Huxley, from Cornwall Food and Drink, said: "I have been around in Cornwall now for 14 years and I think it has transformed enormously. The pasty industry and food manufacturing has really blossomed."

The organisation has launched a new year long campaign called Choose Cornish Every Day, which it hopes will see local produce more of a regular feature on shopping lists.

The "Cornish pasty" was given protected status by European lawmakers, called a Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) in 2011.

It means that pasties made anywhere other than Cornwall can no longer be called "Cornish".

Ms Huxley said: "The pasty growth is the culmination of a lot of things including European funding in the last decade.

"It has meant businesses have been able to go out and tackle new markets backed by European investment.

"You will now find a pasty shop on virtually every railway station and concourse in the UK. That was not the case a few years ago.

"There are 170m pasties of all types made each year, of that 120m are the Cornish pasty variety."

St Austell Brewery said it was now brewing about 25m pints every year, an increase of nearly six-fold since 2000.

James Staughton, from the brewery, said there had been "a real renaissance in Cornish cask ale".

Organisers hope the event in London will further boost Cornish produce and the county, too.

Chris Pomfret, from the Local Enterprise Partnership, said: "When you look at the growth rate of some of our businesses, maybe this is a place the finance sector should be pointing potential investors to."

The event coincides with St Piran's Day which celebrates the 6th Century Irish monk who was apparently cast into the sea tied to a millstone but floated safely across to Perranporth.

The event coincides with St Piran's Day which celebrates the 6th Century Irish monk who was apparently cast into the sea tied to a millstone but floated safely across to Perranporth.