Israeli growers have developed the first known commercial plantation for a little-known vegetable called salicornia, which will be marketed as sea asparagus.
There is already limited production of the vegetable in the UK, harvested in its wild state from saltwater marshes in East Anglia. However, a research centre at Kedesh Barnea has pioneered a crop grown on thick matting, which has been taken up by several producers. Current capacity of 120kg a week is set to double soon.
Agrexco, Israel’s largest marketing organisation, said there was major potential for sales of sea asparagus in the UK.