Reduced sugar jam brand Fearne & Rosie has brought back its Raspberry variant following a two-year hiatus, after soaring ingredients costs forced it to halt production.
The startup paused production of the jam in 2022 after shortages pushed the price of raspberries from £2 per 1kg to £6, according to Fearne & Rosie founder Rachel Kettlewell.
Speaking to The Grocer at the time, Kettlewell said: “We’re always trying to make a healthier product that’s affordable to families, but we got to a point where we couldn’t do that and make it land at an affordable price, so we had to stop production.”
However, commodity prices have “stabilised for some time now,” she said, “which has meant we have been able to bring back Raspberry.”
The SKU is now listed by Ocado (rsp: £3.30/310g) and is available to independents via wholesalers.
The Grocer analysed the year-on-year shelf prices of 37 raspberry jam SKUs available in the traditional big four supermarkets, Aldi, Lidl and Waitrose [Assosia 3 June 2023 vs 3 June 2024].
Fourteen SKUs (37.8%) have seen a year-on-year shelf price increase, while six SKUs (16.2%) have seen a price decrease. The remaining 17 SKUs (45.9%) are the same price this year as last.
Most of the UK’s raspberry jam is made from imported frozen berries. Joe Gittins Jones, MD of frozen fruit supplier Treelinks, said it was “too early to say” whether raspberry prices had stabilised, despite prices falling “dramatically” since 2022’s “record high”.
“We wait to see what 2024 will bring,” said Gittins Jones.
“However, reports of adverse weather are cause for concern – albeit, the raspberry crop does carry on into the autumn.”
It comes as UK raspberry production is also under pressure. Production costs of raspberries have risen by 21.2p per 200g since 2021, according to research by Andersons published in November.
Volume sales of fresh raspberries suffered a 4.1% dip last year, which British Berry Growers said was down to growers cutting back on planting, resulting in fewer punnets on shelves [NIQ 52 w/e 9 September 2023].
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