Tag Archives: fruit

Tesco & Co-op offer free fruit for children

Tesco and Co-op stores are offering free fruit to children while their parents shop.

Tesco is offering the scheme in 800 stores, offering parents a selection of fruit such as apples, some citrus and bananas in response to a suggestion by checkout colleague Maria Simpson. “We’re Britain’s biggest greengrocer, so we want to make it easier for parents to get their children eating more healthily,” said Tesco UK chief executive Matt Davies. “”As a dad, I know it can be tricky getting children to eat their fruit and vegetables, so we’re hoping this initiative will help create healthy eating habits that will stay with children as they grow up.”

In contrast, the Co-op scheme, which is restricted to Lincolnshire, is only available to junior members of the Lincolnshire Co-op between the ages of five to 15. Once registered children can claim a fruit snack bag every day.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

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Most UK fruit imports from outside EU

Most fruit imported into the UK comes from outside the European Union (60 per cent), whereas the EU is the main source of imported vegetables data shows.

Over the last three years total imports of fruit and veg have risen by 12 per cent. The biggest supplier of fruit to the UK is Spain at 679,523 tonnes of fresh fruit, followed by South Africa and Costa Rica with 346,359 and 303,221 tonnes respectively.

Spain is also the largest supplier of vegetables to the UK supplying 1.01 million tonnes, closely followed by The Netherlands at 744,239 tonnes. Between them these two horticultural powerhouses supply 64 per cent of UK vegetable imports. Tomatoes are one of the main imports, and while the volume of potatoes and carrots fell last year, legumes increased by 55 per cent.

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Tesco to sell wonky fruit as well as veg

According to reports, Tesco is to widen its specifications for certain fruit lines after successfully trialling ‘wonky veg’ in its potato and parsnip lines.

The retailer said that it had worked with its suppliers to extend its retail specifications so that it could sell Class II apples and strawberries to its customers at value prices. It added this meant that it would sell 95 per cent of its supplier’s strawberries and 97 per cent of their British apples.

Matt Simister, commercial director for fresh food and commodities at Tesco, told the Fresh Produce Journal, “The work doesn’t stop here though. We have experienced high levels of waste in-store on the parsnips in particular, and therefore need to continually develop our specifications so that we minimise the food that is wasted in any part of the chain.

“We’ve already facilitated the up-take of 35 tonnes per week from our potato partner Branston into our ready meals partner Samworth Brothers, and we’re hopeful that the establishing of a juicing relationship with Scripps, our key grower of British apples, will utilise the remaining two per cent of the edible crop.”

Photo Caption: Tesco says it will now sell 97 per cent of the British apples grown for it.

Photo Credit: Tesco

The post Tesco to sell wonky fruit as well as veg appeared first on Hort News on 15 April.

7.5% jump in UK horticultural area

The latest statistics published by Defra and the Office for National Statistics suggests a 7.5 per cent increase in the area of horticultural crops in the UK last year. The main sectors which contributed to the rise included top fruit, strawberries, raspberries, carrots, onions and salads.

However, the statistics also revealed an 8.6 per cent fall in glasshouse space dedicated to flowers, foliage and other ornamental plants. Home produced vegetables were worth around £1.2 billion in 2014, 8.5 per cent less than 2013 due to lower prices caused by oversupply and lack of demand, with field vegetables worth £885 million and protected vegetables £348 million. The value of UK produced fruit rose in value to £620 million in 2014, 7.5 per cent up on the previous year thanks to increasing demand for soft fruit, together with larger yields and a longer growing season. UK ornamentals were worth £1.17 billion in 2014, 2.0 per cent lower than in 2013 but higher than the values seen in previous years.

Home production of vegetables contributed to around 57.6 per cent of the total UK supply in 2014, while the UK supply of carrots was 101.4 per cent, indicating that the UK exported more carrots than it imported: the highest level of carrot exports on record. Tomatoes also performed well, with home grown crop accounting for 19.4 per cent of consumption, the highest level since 2002.

 

CPM trials East Malling’s strawberries

Soft fruit supplier CPM, which is part of the AG Thames Group, has trialled two new strawberry varieties which came from an exclusive breeding programme at East Malling Research in Kent.

“Although still being trialled, results so far have been extremely positive and we expect commercial volumes to be widely available in 2017,” said Tom Rogers from CPM “Both selections have continued to perform well and be more productive than the standard varieties. As we continue the process it will be possible to continue to improve on this with better understanding of the new varieties through time.

“The breeding programme is unique in its focus to look for varieties that perform well in substrate,” Rogers continued. “It is a system that is becoming most widely used by growers due to its unrivalled benefits. We are therefore well placed to provide our dedicated growers and our customers with material that can help their businesses grow and outperform the competition.”

The names of the new varieties have not yet been released, but according to reports one has large, sweet fruit while the other is smaller with a balance of sugar and acid.

Abi Johnson, from East Malling Research, added, “These selections looked extremely promising at East Malling Research, and I’m delighted to see an equally good performance in grower trials.”

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New fireblight early warning system

Agrovista has added the notifiable disease Fireblight to its cloud-based pest and disease forecasting service for top fruit growers: Growers Choice Interactive.

The new early warning system is undergoing final trials and will be released May 2015. It will be available free of charge to GCI subscribers, says Agrovista fruit agronomist Alex Radu.

“Fireblight is a potentially serious disease on apples and pears caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora. There is no chemical cure available, so growers have to rely on copper-based preventative or antagonistic sprays before the disease takes hold,” he explains. “This makes accurate forecasting all the more vital.”

Fireblight infection occurs through blossom and new growth when weather is favourable and inoculum is present. The new fireblight software, developed by Dutch pest and disease software forecasting specialist RIMpro, calculates the likelihood of infection based on the flowering period obtained from weather information and observation and likely contamination and bacterial growth based on temperature and relative humidity/rainfall.

The quality of the forecast is completely dependent on the accuracy of these weather predictions, says Mr Radu. “Erwinia becomes a threat at 18C or more, when conditions are wet. Growers whose orchards have a history of disease can assume it is there, and we can now help them forecast potential outbreaks with greater accuracy. This means we can improve the timing and efficacy of preventative applications, which will be a real benefit to growers in managing disease.”

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