A busy summer for Wightlink – from Isle of Wight Festival to Harvest Festival

Summer for Wightlink traditionally begins with transporting thousands of revellers to the Isle of Wight Festival, however it ends by swapping festival bods for sweetcorn cobs as it transports millions of sweetcorn cobs grown by Barfoots on the Isle of Wight to the mainland for onward distribution to Britain’s supermarkets.

The Isle of Wight’s unique microclimate, with some of the highest light levels in the UK and natural shelter from coastal winds, provides ideal growing conditions for sweetcorn. The extra sunshine helps give Island-grown sweetcorn its distinctive sweetness and vibrant flavour, making it a favourite in British kitchens from July through to October.

This year, while there was plenty of sunshine, the hot, dry summer and lack of rainfall brought challenges for growers. Despite this, Wightlink has transported almost 10 million cobs from the Isle of Wight this summer, with almost 220 loads travelling from Barfoots Farm in Arreton to the company’s mainland processing and distribution centre in West Sussex.

Wightlink, which plays an important role in transporting Island-grown produce throughout the year, said it was proud to support the partnership. Kirstie Higgins-Day, Wightlink’s Head of Business Development, said: “Seeing so much Isle of Wight-grown sweetcorn heading to the mainland is a real celebration of local agriculture. We’re delighted to be part of the journey from
farm to fork.”

The hot weather also meant this year’s harvest was brought forward by around two weeks, putting additional pressure on the logistics operation to move the crop quickly while maintaining its freshness.

Bob Morris, Manager of Barfoots’ Isle of Wight Farm, praised Wightlink’s flexibility in handling the increased demand. He said: “In order for our produce to stay fresh for customers, we need to minimise transport time so that it can reach supermarket shelves as quickly as possible. Wightlink were really good at managing our lorry bookings, so trailers of fresh corn weren’t left sitting in the terminals in the heat. We were able to ship almost 220 trailers full of corn off the Island in a relatively short period of time.”

The seasonal operation highlights the important role ferry services play in keeping the Island’s agricultural supply chain moving, ensuring locally grown produce can make its way from fields on the Isle of Wight to supermarket shelves across Britain.

For Wightlink, it marks a fitting end to a summer that began with thousands of festival-goers making their way to the Island – and ended with millions of sweetcorn cobs heading in the opposite direction.