"King of Onions" Russell Armstrong provides 70 million onions to Co-operative store

A SUPERMARKET chain has chosen a Fenland farmer and ‘King of Onions’ to be the face of their campaign to champion British produce.

New packaging of Co-operative fruit and vegetables

The Co-operative Group, the only supermarket to also run farms, picked Russell Armstrong to appear on the packaging of onions in more than 3,000 stores in the country.

Mr Armstrong, who works on the Coldham Estate, near Wisbech, was chosen by the group to appear on all onions packaging because he supplies 40 per cent, around 70 million, of all onions sold in Co-op stores.

He said: “I’m extremely proud to be a British farmer and help promote the fresh quality seasonal produce that is grown and enjoyed by people across the country.

“I’m now the King of Onions. I’ve had a little bit of ribbing from friends and family but overall they’re very porud of me.

“We’ve had quite a good year on the farm, with the sun in April and May pushing through the crops and the Indian summer in September made harvesting easier as it was really dry, and it’s all toped off with being the face of onions.

“It was clear we needed new packaging and it now means that customers will appreciate the farmers more and that the onions just don’t appear on the shelves magically.”

Christine Tacon, managing director of The Co-operative Farms, added: “The Co-operative has a long heritage in farming and we supply significant volumes of produce from our own farms to our food stores.

“This bold new packaging will highlight key British produce lines when they are available in store and demonstrate our continued commitment to British farming. It will also enable our customers to support these growers.”

The new packaging, which features a large Union Jack and photographs and comments from the farmers, will be put in store over the next 12 months.