Growing primocane blackberries yielding two crops a year is expected to become a reality, growers were told by international breeder Professor John Clark, of the University of Arkansas, last week.
Clark’s presentation was given during an announcement from Hargreaves Plants that it has become an agent for four of the top proven US floricane varieties that will become available to the industry next year.
Named after native American tribes - Arapaho, Apache, Navaho and Ouachita - the plants are some of the latest thornless varieties in a series in development since the 1980s.
Blackberries are one of the few native US fruits, and Clark claimed Ouachita “is the most exciting that we have developed because it is so highly adaptive”.
Amongst the audience were growers from Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Poland, and Bulgaria. “The challenge is to grow supersweet varieties, focus on eating quality and extending the English season” said Jamie Petchell of Hargreaves.
According to TNS data presented by Adrian Wallbridge, technical director for The Summerfruit Company, the UK retail market for blackberries has expanded by 370 per cent since 2004 and is worth £14.3 million annually.
The introduction of Tupi and the classification of blackberries as a superfruit have both helped expand sales. The UK season runs from May to September and most of the UK retailers over-trade on the fruit compared with their overall fresh produce sales: Tesco has 24 per cent of the total market in value terms, Sainsbury’s 23 per cent, Asda 12 per cent, and Morrisons, Marks & Spencer and Waitrose around 10 per cent, revealed Wallbridge.
