Monthly Archives: October 2017

Buxton wholesaler given grant to expand

Family owned fresh produce wholesaler Tomson (Buxton) Ltd has been awarded a grant of £16,724 of Peak LEADER Rural Grant funding in order to expand one of its warehouses.

The firm was established 30 years ago when former PE teacher Deb Thompson and her husband opened a small grocery shop. Today the company employs 31 staff across three warehouses and buys food from growers across the UK, which is supplied to schools, business, hotels and restaurants in the Peak District and further afield.

Ms Thompson said, “We’ve wanted to extend one of our warehouses for a while but it’s a big project that would cost a lot of money so I’m really pleased we heard about these grants to help us. Within the extension is a second loading bay so we can send and receive deliveries at the same time and we have more space to move stock around. We’ve also been able to take on two new members of staff as a result and we’re looking to employ one more.”

Photo Credit: Tomson (Buxton) Ltd

The post Buxton wholesaler given grant to expand appeared first on Hort News on 5 Oct. 2017.

Construction begins on new Berry Gardens packhouse

Construction has begun on Berry Gardens’ new £18 million packing facility at Linton, near Maidstone in Kent.

Mayor of Maidstone Cllr Malcolm Greer dug the first ceremonial turf on Friday 29 September, marking the start of a two year construction process, with the scheme being developed by farming and haulage company Alan Firmin Ltd.

Michael Firmin, Managing Director of Alan Firmin, said, “We are delighted to be commencing work on this purpose built, high quality facility. We and Berry Gardens have a long track record of working together, and we are very pleased to be able to assist again with their expansion plans for the future.”

Nick Allen, Berry Garden’s Chief Operating Officer, added: “Today marks an exciting development in Berry Gardens’ history. The construction of the new head office and packing facility will ensure we continue to meet the challenges of our thriving market and create sustainable local employment.”

The 14,000 sq ft complex will include offices and 12 loading bays, as well as featuring solar panels and ecological areas. It is expected to safeguard 434 existing jobs and create up to 500 new ones. Cllr Greer commented, “This is an important investment for Maidstone and sends a positive, confident message about the prospects for the area’s fruit industry. It’s a privilege to get work started.”

Photo Caption: Artist’s impression of the new packhouse

Photo Credit: Berry Gardens Ltd

The post Construction begins on new Berry Gardens packhouse appeared first on Hort News on 5 Oct 2017.

New training course on minimising pesticide residues

Ian Finlayson, CEO of Practical Solutions International Ltd, is to run a new course for horticultural training provider ARTIS on managing pesticide residues in fresh produce.

Ian, who has extensive technical experience in the industry, served as a member of the government’s advisory Pesticide Residue Committee for seven years. The next course will be run in Cambridge in November, and will cover topics such as the principles of pesticide residue testing, designing a residue testing programme, and sampling for laboratory analysis. As well as covering UK and EU legislation, the course also looks at areas such as risk assessment, best practice and managing ‘restricted lists’.

John Owles, Sainsbury’s Technical Manager for East Africa, who attended a previous course, said, “The course was very relevant to the ever-changing requirements in the industry, and provided an excellent up-date as well as a refresher of the requirements needed for Maximum Residue Levels in a very understandable way.”

More details can be found here.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

The post New training course on minimising pesticide residues appeared first on Hort News on 5 Oct 2017.

Understanding energy storage for UK growers

As the UK’s electricity grid becomes more complicated, with increased amounts of embedded renewable energy generation, managing it to maintain the balance between electricity supply and demand becomes increasingly complex. In order to do this, new technologies such as battery storage are being developed, but can growers utilise them to save money or generate extra income?

That was one of the main questions posed by a recent GrowSave event held at Kenilworth ahead of the 2017 Tomato Growers Association Conference. Tim Pratt of FEC Energy gave a comprehensive overview of the various mechanisms used to supply and balance the grid, together with the potential incomes and challenges associated with each, while Jon Swain looked at the particular issues associated with battery storage for short-term frequency balancing. For growers with access to a grid connection, hosting one of these facilities may be attractive, but the economics are marginal at best and it is important that any growers considering this look carefully at the costs and contract details.

Oli Coe explained that heat storage is more likely to be of immediate benefit to greenhouse growers. Heat storage systems based around water tanks are frequently included as part of greenhouse heating systems, particularly where biomass boilers or CO2 generation is involved, where they allow optimal boiler efficiency. However, FEC Energy has found that many systems operate below optimum efficiency, and that simple steps can be taken to improve this.

With additional presentations from Priva and Certhon, the GrowSave Energy Storage workshop provided growers with plenty of food for thought, as well as some take-home practical messages to ensure the efficiency of their own heating systems.

Image credit: GrowSave.

Read the original article at GrowSave.

Bejo Oped Days are a ‘must attend’ event

Once again the world’s vegetable industry descended on the small Dutch town of Warmenhuizen for Bejo’s annual Open Days, held between the 26th and 30th September. The must sees: our True Potato seed variety Oliver F1, B-Mox, our bee program, carrot experts from all over the world presenting at our Carrot Symposium and a glimpse into the future of Bejo! In 2017 more people than ever visited from around the world, with guests coming from across Asia, the Americas, Africa, Australasia and of course Europe….

My full article, written for Bejo Zaden can be found here.

Scottish farm debt hits record level

Scottish farmers owe more money to banks than at any time since records began in 1972, according to a report.

Outstanding loans to Scottish farms were more than £2.3 billion by the end of May, up £113 million (or 5%) on the previous period. Other finance, such as hire purchase agreements, family loans and other borrowing could account for a further £1.1 billion according to estimates.

Some commentators have questioned whether widely reported delays in farm payments by the Scottish Government have contributed to the figures, but Scotland’s Rural Economy Secretary Fergus Ewing tried to put a positive spin on the figures: “It is vital that Scottish farmers can continue to access capital to invest in their businesses. These statistics show that banks are still lending to farmers, which is a sure sign of confidence in the sector,” he said.

“However, with many farmers relying on subsidies for a large part of their income, we must be wary of farmers getting into excessive and unmanageable debt.”

There is a similar pattern to agricultural borrowing in the rest of the UK, with figures from the Bank of England showing that in May 2017, the UK agricultural, field sports and forestry sector had an outstanding debt of £18.5 billion, up 57% since 2010.

The post Scottish farm debt hits record level appeared first on Hort News on 28 Sept 2017.

Latest statistics show mixed fortunes for UK horticulture

Defra’s annual summary of UK horticulture shows mixed fortunes for the vegetable, fruit and ornamental sectors, with the value of field vegetables rising while protected veg and fruit fell.

The data shows that home produced vegetables were worth £1.3 billion in 2016, up 7.5% on 2015, although overall production fell by 5.2%. There was an increase in the value of field vegetables, which rose to £990 million (a £107 million increase) whilst the value of protected vegetables fell to £353 million (a £13 million fall). UK grown fruit fell in value to £670 million, a fall of 3.7% compared to 2015, with production at the same level as last year. The fall in value was largely driven by price, with a fall in the value of soft fruit due to a later start to the soft fruit season and a fall in production when compared to 2015.

Home production of vegetables contributed to around 54% of the total UK supply in 2016, 4.6% lower than in 2015. Home production of vegetables fell by 5.2% to 2.6 million tonnes. However, over the last 20 years total production of vegetables remains fairly constant between 2½ and 3 million tonnes. Overall, total supply was down 0.6% to 4.9 million tonnes. This is the first fall in total supply for 4 years.

For fruit, UK production contributed 17% of the total UK supply of fruit in 2016, 3.4% lower than in 2015, but home produced apples increased their share of the market to 42% a 6.8% increase on 2015. This was due to an increase in home production and a reduction in exports when compared to 2015. The total supply of fruit rose by 3.5% to 4.5 million tonnes in 2016.

Photo Credit: Defra

The post Latest statistics show mixed fortunes for UK horticulture appeared first on Hort News on 28 Sept 2017.

Is organic production better for the climate?

A new study by The National Soil Project at Northeastern University in the United States, in collaboration with the Organic Center, concludes that organic agricultural practices build healthy soils and can be part of the solution in the fight on global warming.

One of the key findings is that on average, organic farms have 44% higher levels of humic acid (the component of soil that sequesters carbon over the long term) than soils which are not managed organically.

The Organic Center contacted organic farmers who acted as “citizen scientists” to collect organic soil samples from throughout the country to compare with the conventional soil samples already in the National Soil Project’s data set. Altogether, the study measured 659 organic soil samples from 39 states and 728 conventional soil samples from all 48 contiguous states. It found that that all the components of humic substances were higher in organic than in conventional soils.

“This study is truly groundbreaking,” said Dr Jessica Shade, Director of Science Programs for The Organic Center. “We don’t just look at total soil organic carbon, but also the components of soil that have stable pools of carbon – humic substances, which gives us a much more accurate and precise view of the stable, long-term storage of carbon in the soils.”

Photo Caption: Dr Jessica Shade

Photo Credit: Audubon

The post Is organic production better for the climate? appeared first on Hort News on 28 Sept 2017.

UK ornamentals market grows almost 5%

According to the latest official UK horticultural statistics published by Defra, in 2016 the ornamentals market was worth £1.2 billion, an increase of 4.7% on the previous year. Most of this value came from imports, with the value of imported plants and flowers rising 11% compared with 2015.

The value of ornamental imports cost just below £1.2 billion an 11% rise on 2015. The Netherlands accounted for 74% of imports, mainly indoor plants, chrysanthemums and roses, while Kenya accounted for 5.8% of imports, mainly cut roses and carnations. Imports of cut flowers showed a 13% increase and bulbs a 6.4% increase.

However, there was also positive news for UK growers, as over the same period, exports of ornamentals increased 20% in terms to value to £66 million.

Photo Credit: Defra

The post UK ornamentals market grows almost 5% appeared first on Hort News on 28 Sept 2017.

UK apple growers approaching labour ‘cliff edge’

As the British apple season gets into full swing, producers have reiterated concerns about the availability of labour and the potential impacts on the future of the UK fruit industry.

“All British apples are picked by hand, which means that the harvest from orchards is highly labour-intensive,” Steven Munday, chief executive of English Apples and Pears told The Guardian. “We’re working hard with the National Farmers’ Union and other bodies to lobby for access to the required seasonal labour after Brexit.”

John Hardman of labour provider Hops added, “We have managed to scrape by this year but 2018 is going to be a cliff edge. Apples and pears are a particular problem because it’s such a short season – typically six weeks, which means we cannot attract UK workers because of the welfare system.”