DORSET
CONTACT DETAILS
| Telephone 01929 408269 info@thewatercresscompany.com |
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INFORMATION ONLY
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The Watercress Company is a progressive and very enthusiastic company based in Dorchester, Dorset. The purpose of our business is to produce the finest quality Watercress safely and sustainably across our farms in Dorset, Hampshire & Spain.
To achieve this, we have an exceptional team of over 25 experts, ranging from highly trained seasonal staff to specialist watercress growers, technical staff, and commercial creatives.
Our business was founded by our Chairman, Peter Old, in 1994. He had the vision to see that by combining two smaller businesses into a new company he could harness the resources to build a market-leading company which now sells watercress, and wasabi throughout UK and Europe.
Innovation is core to our business as it tests our creativity and problem-solving solutions, improving our efficiency and keeping us motivated to achieve sucess. We supply to a broad range of markets from local grocery stores through food service distributors and national supermarkets.
This is all achieved through our partners and collaborators. We aim to identify opportunities together and produce a plan that adds value and qualities that others can’t achieve on their own. We always take the long-term view to business development and ensure our investments are meeting this business model.
How we grow watercress
The principles of growing watercress have essentially changed little over the years. Much of the work is still done by hand due to the nature of the watercress beds
Until the mid-1950s watercress was predominantly a winter crop and to support this there were farms operating up to ten times the area of production that exists today. This is because the crop grows slowly during this period compared to the faster summer period. This winter production suited the farms as they often dried up in the summer. Over time many farms became unsuitable for production and became redundant or sold for development.
This left a reduced area and with a desire to move away from the disease issues created from vegetative propagation the industry moved to a more reliable and successful system of propagation from seeds.
TWC produces all its own seed and this is key to our security of variety ensuring optimum resistance to pest and disease.
Harvesting has become mechanised with custom built machines which both harvest and remove contaminants. The process now is a far cry from the back breaking hand harvesting which was the reality for many years. The cleaning out is now done with a tractor and we have also recently mechanised fertiliser applications to increase efficiency and reduce inputs.
