BCGA
Rooting carrots in British shopping baskets.
Carrots are the only vegetable to be grown and harvested all year round in the UK – low in food miles, nutritious and versatile but competing hard with exotic imports. The British Carrot Growers’ Association (BCGA) wants to put British carrots back in every shopping basket to support British farmers.
Journalists Reached
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for British Carrot Day
Publications and Channels
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channels featured British Carrot Day including Prime Time TV
Social Media Videos
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for British Carrot Day
The British Carrot Growers’ Association (BCGA) is the body that represents the UK’s carrot growers.
In 2023, five members - Strawsons, Kettle, Huntapac, Poskitts, Burgess Farms – committed to creating a campaign to promote the humble carrot. The campaign’s primary aim is to protect the future of the British carrot and its growers by increasing consumption of carrots in the UK, while also communicating the realities and practicalities of growing and harvesting carrots.
It approached JCM&Co as an agency with knowledge and understanding of agriculture and love of promoting British-grown food. The goal was to widen communications beyond British carrot growers to UK consumers to drive awareness, interest and loyalty to British carrots.
The communications needed to engage consumers not only with the taste and health benefits of carrots but also the story of British farming, the challenges and highs of growing carrots, and why low food miles and supporting home grown food matters.
With a limited budget, funded by the growers, we created and launched the UK’s first British Carrot Day (3 October) creating traction across social media and consumer and trade press.
In the lead up to the day, we used the growers’ stories to bring British carrot production to life for the consumer press and social media, creating videos and engaging content to explain the facts and stats.
We created a social media toolkit for carrot growers, industry organisations, farm shops and schools, with downloadable and easy-to-use graphics. In 2026, JCM&Co also launched a carrot growing initiative for schools in partnership with Elsoms Seeds.
To engage in person with the media and stakeholders, we hosted press at the Annual Carrot Demonstration Day held by the BCGA on a farm near Nottingham. Although this is a trade event, it gave a platform to highlight the challenges of carrot growing, including costs, markets and seasons, sharing the wider intelligent story that appeals to conscious consumers.
We successfully secured a slot for Rodger Hobson, Chairman of the BCGA, on multiple podcasts and radio stations, including The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, BBC Farming Today, and ITV Good Morning Britain, and a filmed interview with Rodger and the BBC which aired on the evening regional news.
Stories on British carrots ran in broadsheet, regional, agriculture and food trade press, with a reach of 10,752 journalists or in over 40 publications.
Schools' competition? JCM launched a carrot growing competition for primary schools in March 2026. It was so popular in applications, that we extended it to secondary schools and are already making plans to increase the scale of the competition next year.
Engagement and awareness grew through social media with more than 330,000 views, and thousands of people actively engaged and posted carrot content on their own social channel, using the hashtag #BritishCarrotDay.
What our customer say:
"Having partnered with JCM&Co for over five years, we find their expertise essential in elevating the press and comms around our annual festival.
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