Tag Archives: soft fruit

Scottish growers depend on migrants

A television documentary has helped the Scottish soft fruit industry highlight the importance of migrant labour.

The episode of the BBC documentary Landward visited Sylvia and James Clarke who grow 100 acres of fruit and vegetables in polytunnels at Wester Hardmuir near Nairn, as well as large fruit grower Ross Mitchell from Castleton Farm near Laurencekirk in Angus. The Clarkes employ some 20 students a year from countries including Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia, while Castleton Farm needs around 600 seasonal workers every year.

The programme followed a roundtable meeting in Edinburgh organised by the Migration Advisory Committee. Following the meeting, NFU Scotland horticulture committee chairman James Porter, who grows soft fruit as part of a mixed farming enterprise at East Scryne, said, “Access to workers remains a key priority, particularly for some very successful parts of our industry that are overwhelmingly dependent on non-UK harvest labour. For our soft fruit and vegetable sectors, there must be mechanisms put in place to allow access to those workers next year and ensure workers will be able to come to Scotland post-Brexit, in spring 2019.”

“This year, there has been a shortage of between 10 and 20% of seasonal workers coming from the EU – partly because of exchange rates, but also because of increasing affluence in other parts of the EU. This will get worse year on year.”

Photo Credit: PxHere

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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.

British Summer Fruits comments on latest migration figures

British Summer Fruits has warned that the latest official net migration figures from the Office of National Statistics are evidence of the damage that Brexit is causing to the UK soft fruit sector.

The migration figures showed a fall in net migration of 81,000 to 246,000 in the 12 months to March 2017, with an additional 33,000 leaving the country during the period. Most of these were EU citizens, with EU net migration falling by 51,000 to 127,000 within the period.

“The new figures released today on net migration are worrying evidence of the impact Brexit will have on EU nationals working in Britain,” said Laurence Olins, chairman of British Summer Fruits. “For the soft fruit industry, this confirms our own recent data, which shows that in some areas up to 20 percent of seasonal workers are leaving our farms and returning home due to the uncertainly of Brexit and the fall of the pound against the euro.

“In addition, recent data that we have collected reveals that nearly 80 percent of our growers have experienced early leavers and nearly 50 percent of growers put this down to Brexit. Brexit is already having a negative impact on our industry.” He called on the government to work faster to resolve the issue, for example by introducing a new Seasonal Workers Permit scheme.

Photo Caption: The soft fruit industry is concerned that a loss of EU migrants could lead to harvesting problems.

The post British Summer Fruits comments on latest migration figures appeared first on Hort News on 31 August.

Blackberries could be latest UK berry craze

Blackberry sales are currently growing at around 20 per cent per year and British growers are hoping to capitalise on the growing demand.

“Market growth is being driven by the same shoppers buying blackberries more frequently,” John Gray, Commercial Director at Angus Soft Fruits recently told the US press. “There is an element of consumers being happy with the product, which is positive. But it shows there’s still a lot more room to grow.”

According to the latest Kantar Worldpanel data, in the twelve months to 18 June there was an 18.7 per cent rise in annual retail sales to £37.4 million, although the figure grew to 29.3 at the start of the soft fruit season. Only 12.5 per cent of UK households bought blackberries in the past year, compared to 80 per cent buying strawberries and almost 50 per cent for raspberries and blueberries.

“With increased production, we think that sales of blackberries could double by the end of 2020,” says Berry Gardens’ category manager Colin Morley.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

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Bumper fruit year coincides with labour shortages

Excellent growing conditions have provided a bumper crop of UK soft fruit this season, but industry organisation British Summer Fruits warns that Brexit means that many growers are struggling to harvest the volume.

“We have been experiencing bumper crops across both strawberries and cherries this year,” said a spokeswoman for British Summer Fruits. Tesco is among retailers who have reported increased sales of British grown fruit from strawberries through to cherries and apricots, and has introduced larger pack sizes to help suppliers move unexpected large volumes of product.

However, growers are reporting a shortage of migrant workers available for fruit picking and grading. Jack Ward, chief executive of British Growers told journalists, “The labour situation has definitely tightened in the last 15 months. It is more difficult and more costly to recruit people. There are fewer returners and the age profile, generally, is going up amongst seasonal labour. I think younger people are more prepared to go and do other things.

“If you wound the clock back 10 years, it would have been the younger people who pioneered the idea of coming from Lithuania or Romania or Bulgaria or the Czech Republic to pick fruit.

“I think what you are finding is that a lot of businesses are spending a lot more time recruiting than they have in previous years. They have got to work a lot harder to attract people.” He added that high levels of employment (the highest since 1971) also meant that there are insufficient numbers of British workers to replace EU labour, even if they could be persuaded to pick the crops.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

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Scottish scientists looking for native blueberry variety

Scientists at the James Hutton Institute (JHI) at Invergowrie near Dundee are working to develop varieties of blueberry which are tailored for UK growing conditions.

Sales of blueberries have soared in recent years, with consumption increasing by 24 per cent last year, but up to 90 per cent of the crop is still imported. It is hoped that the closely related blaeberry (also known as the bilberry) could hold the key to developing native varieties.

JHI researcher Dr Susan McCallum told reporters at the recent Fruit for the Future event: “Blaeberries are native to the UK and other places across Europe, and they’re part of the same family as blueberries, so we’re looking to develop the genetic background of both the blueberry and blaeberry to see if we can identify which genes help the blaeberry to thrive so well in the UK, to see if we can transfer that into a UK blueberry.

“We’re also looking at the genes which confer the colour through the pulp of the blueberry to see if we can understand that because that’s what gives the extra anthocyanins and the perceived health benefits of the fruit.”

Wild blueberries need little nutrient input and are tolerant of periods of drought, so it is hoped that new varieties could also reduce the environmental impact of fruit production. “[Blaeberries] thrive well because they have a great relationship with fungi. We’re looking to see if we can isolate the fungi that work so well on the blaeberry and inoculate the blueberry to see if we can help it establish much quicker,” Dr McCallum added.

Photo Caption: It is hoped the native blaeberry could help to develop UK-specific varieties of blueberry.

Photo Credit: Flickr

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Record sales for Scottish strawberries

According to press reports, ‘record quantities of Scottish strawberries are being sold this summer.’ The sentiment was backed by Michael Jarvis, head of marketing at Albert Bartlett and Scotty Brand, which last year sold nearly 4 million tonnes of the fruit, equivalent to 28 berries a minute.

Scotty Brand strawberries are grown in Perthshire by Bruce Farms. Mr Jarvis commented, “We work very closely with Bruce Farms to ensure our strawberries are tastier, fresher and keep better for longer. It’s fantastic to see customers continuing to opt for locally sourced Scottish produce, and its clear strawberries are the summer fruit of choice.”

Another major Scottish fruit grower, Angus Soft Fruits, has introduced four new AVA varieties of strawberry for this season, as well as two varieties of raspberry. Dave Griffiths, Angus Soft Fruits R&D Director & head breeder, said, “The new varieties are the result of several years of hard work by my team and we look forward to seeing these on retailer shelves this summer.”

Photo Credit: Pexels

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Sainsbury’s predicting 700% boost in strawberry sales

Supermarket Sainsbury’s has revealed that during the four months of summer, strawberries are its most popular product, outselling even milk and bread.

The retailer predicts a peak increase in strawberry sales of 700% compared to average levels, accounting for a large part of the 126,000 tonnes of the fruit sold each year in the UK. The retailer also expects to see an increase in sales of sparkling wine and has said that the pairing of Taste the Difference Crémant de Loire with the Murano strawberry.

Sainsbury’s strawberry technician Peter Czarnobaj said, “There’s much more to strawberries than meets the eye and it can take years to develop each variety. What I love about Murano is that it perfectly balances sweetness with acidity as well as having a great shape and depth of colour. We sell more strawberries than any other product for up to 16 weeks so it’s important that our customers can enjoy British-grown strawberries for as long as possible.”

The supermarket claims to offer 18 different varieties of British strawberries throughout the season including Murano, Sonata and Majestic, as well as Elsanta. Murano was first developed for Sainsbury’s in 2014 and is noted for its winning combination of flavour and vibrant colour.

Photo Credit: Sainsbury’s

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Berryworld gives away raspberries at Wimbledon

Soft fruit supplier Berryworld has sought to raise the profile of its own brand berries, which were first launched 18 months ago, by handing out around 7,500 pots of raspberries to tennis fans in the queue during the first week of Wimbledon.

Berryworld Managing Director Paul Cole said the event was aimed at raising awareness of the company’s branded offering: “We’ve done tastings at retailers, but that’s mainly been own label,” he said. “This is the biggest event we’ve done to promote our brand but we’ve got more planned. There are so many different avenues you can go down to push the name forward.”

He also said that while products such as raspberries and blueberries were unlikely to become as popular as strawberries, there was plenty of potential for growth. “They’ve got a long way to go and part of our job as marketers is getting people buying into them,” he added.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Commons

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New technology could cut strawberry waste

A new filter which absorbs and locks in ethylene in enclosed spaces, such as retail packaging, could revolutionise the shelf life of fresh produce according to the company behind it.

Figures from tech company It’s Fresh! claim their filter inserts are now saving 1,134 tonnes of strawberries each year; the equivalent of almost three million punnets, or forty times the number of strawberries eaten at Wimbledon every summer. The green and white stripy filters are now being used by supermarkets including M&S, Morrisons, and Waitrose.

Simon Lee, co-founder of It’s Fresh! said, “Wasting food really does waste everything – Water, labour, energy, time and money. Many of us know that over a third of the food produced globally gets wasted, but what you might not know is that it takes almost half a gallon of water to grow one strawberry, add to that the labour & fuel to pick, pack, ship and process it for retail merchandising ….and you can begin to see the scale of the problem that we face.”

Photo Credit: It’s Fresh!

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