Great British Pea Week celebrates blooming pea vining sector
15th June 2023
The annual event of the UK pea industry returns for its eighth year between 3rd-9th of July 2023 to celebrate hard-working farmers who produce two billion portions of peas each year and to educate consumers about the versatile nutritional benefits of the crop.
Launched by the Yes Peas! campaign, Great British Pea Week recognises the industry-wide effort made by experts across the pea vining sector during their busiest period, who work hard to deliver frozen peas to the UK market and beyond each year.
It follows the group’s recent successful campaign for the ‘pea-moji’, which saw the new pea pod emoji released across mobile phone keyboards earlier this year.
The event also aims to inspire consumers to include peas in their everyday cooking and promote the versatility of the vegetable, which can be spread on toast, thrown into a risotto or pasta, popped in a healthy soup or casserole, offering endless choices.
During the eight-week UK pea harvest, farmers work in unison around the clock to harvest, shell and transport the peas from field to frozen storage as quickly as possible, with most crops making it to the factory and through the freezing process in just under two and a half hours.
With the average Brit consuming around 9,000 peas a year, the pea harvest is critical in ensuring produce makes it to supermarket shelves to sustain the demand for the full year, with the British pea industry harvesting 160,000 tonnes of frozen peas each year.
Great British Pea Week champions the 700 pea farmers around the country, who work within 16 different grower groups to ensure that Great Britain remains the largest producer and consumer of frozen peas in Europe, maintaining the country’s impressive track record of being 90% self-sufficient in pea production.
Holly Jones, crop association executive at the British Growers Association, which runs the Yes Peas! campaign, commented: “Great British Pea Week is the perfect time to celebrate the versatile vegetable that we all love here in the UK.
“As a nation, we are 90% self-sufficient in pea production, meaning that nearly all peas in supermarket freezers going into your trolley or online order are most likely grown by British farmers on a British farm, resulting in the superior quality we all love.”
For further information about Great British Pea Week or the Yes Peas! campaign, along with recipe inspiration, visit www.peas.org
