Find us
Follow us
New Covent Garden Market is an official partner of British Food Fortnight 2023, which runs from 16 September through to 1 October.
British Food Fortnight (BFF) is the largest annual national celebration of British food, organised by Love British Food during the traditional time of harvest festival. The two week showcase invites communities and organisations across the country to celebrate the diverse and delicious, high-quality food produced by British growers and manufacturers.
This year is the 22nd BFF and the list of supporters is wide and varied – from schools, hospitals and care homes, to restaurants, hotels, supermarket chains and independent retailers. As an official partner, New Covent Garden Market, which sells huge volumes of British fruit and vegetables year-round, will be putting the bunting out and celebrating throughout the fortnight by highlighting some of the work its traders do with their British grower partners.
• Two local primary schools will receive a teaching pack and three different English apples varieties during BFF, allowing around 550 children to learn more about apples, health and nutrition and of course their local wholesale market.
• After the summer break, NCGM traders will resume their initiative to supply student chefs at Westminster Kingsway College with a different British fruit or vegetable each month to study and incorporate into the incredible dishes they create for the on-site restaurants.
• NCGM was at the vanguard as ever when the first commercial crop of English peaches and nectarines hit the market earlier this summer. The delicious juicy stone fruit, from Mockbeggar Farm in Rochester Kent, has been sold to our retail and catering customers across the South East.
• NCGM based wholesaler County Supplies has this year launched an extremely successful social media marketing campaign, which sees it promoting and highlighting its British growers with chef demonstrations, recipes, monthly reports and grower interviews.
• Rushton’s the chef’s greengrocer is also using social media channels to highlight some of the great things happening within its British grower network, including regenerative farming projects and various other forms of responsible farming.
“While the traders at New Covent Garden Market of course sell world class, seasonal fresh produce from all corners of the globe, everyone at the market is extremely proud of the relationships we have with British growers,” said the market’s Press Officer Tommy Leighton. “Many of the businesses here have been working with the same British suppliers for several decades, through generations of families on both sides, and of course there are also new suppliers selling into the market every year.
“The beginning of the season for any British product generates excitement – there’s no doubt that the demand for homegrown fruit and vegetables remains very high across the independent retail, catering and hospitality sectors, because they know that their customers want to buy British too,” he added. “The ethos and values of British Food Fortnight reflect our passion for our suppliers and for what we do, and we’re keen to use the fortnight to make British consumers more aware that they can buy top class, affordable British produce from their local, independent businesses.”
