It is hard to imagine a British summer without berries. Punnets of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries are an essential part of the summer for millions of families and are given huge prominence in all of the major retailers.
Berries had been the strongest performing sector of fresh produce for many years, but struggled a little in 2010, with sales declining 3.4 per cent [Kantar 12 m/e November]. The value of the market was cut by £40 million.
This year, however, the berry industry is optimistic, with the latest sales figures showing a return to growth (see p12-13). Not only has the unseasonably warm weather during March and April brought this year’s first crop of British strawberries forward to the start of May, but new varieties, including several new sweet-eating blackberries, are hitting the shelves of Waitrose and Marks & Spencer, offering hope for further growth.
“An early season is great for the industry,” says berry grower and NFU regional chairman Anthony Snell. “It spreads the season out and is a win-win for growers and customers, because it means there will be a steady supply of good quality berries throughout the season. We are lucky in that although it was an exceptionally cold winter and we did have a fair amount of frost damage, it has been perfect in March and the weather now is absolutely ideal for fruit production.”
According to Nick Marston, managing director of Berry Gardens, which supplies around 40 per cent of British berries, the 2009 hard winter was to blame for the decline in 2010, delaying the season by at least a week. This meant that by mid-July, the company had sold seven per cent fewer strawberries than in 2009.
Demand for imported Iberian berries has been high so far this spring, says Marston, which bodes well for the British crop. “Both Morocco and Spain have had a good year, and that is a good springboard for the UK season because the demand is already out there.”
Indeed, data is already indicating strong growth, led by sales of Spanish fruit. In the last 12 weeks, the berry market has grown 29.5 per cent and the last four weeks has seen impressive growth of 40.4 per cent [Nielsen]. “The Spanish season has so far been good, which has led to significant year-on-year growth,” says Adam Olins, managing director of BerryWorld.
Jill Witheymen, marketing director of Angus Soft Fruits, agrees: “Soft fruit is an impulse purchase dependent on good weather. As things stand, it looks like a much earlier season, so we are more optimistic.”
While strawberries remain the best-selling berry, with sales of £416m in the 12 months to 20 March 2011 [Kantar], the rise of the blueberry has been impressive, and it is fast catching up with raspberries in competition for the number-two spot. Sales of raspberries stood at £132m during the same period, while blueberry sales were £128m.
Blueberries have been an enormous success story over the past decade, and Marston believes the same could be done with blackberries. Worth £25m in the 12 months to 20 March [Kantar], blackberries are currently the poor relation of the berry family. But Berry Gardens has introduced three new sweet eating varieties of blackberry - Driscoll’s Carmel, Cowles and Karaka Black, which are already on sale in Waitrose and Marks & Spencer and will be available in other retailers in the late spring to early summer.
Consumers believe blackberries aren’t as sweet or nice to eat as other berries, says Marston, but based on the experience of the US, where sweet eating varieties are already available, he believes these new varieties could radically transform the fortunes of the blackberry market here. “Blackberries are almost as big as raspberries in North America now,” he says. “I think [these varieties] could easily quadruple the size of the UK blackberry market.”
Plant breeder Rupert Hargreaves agrees the blackberry market has huge potential. “A string of varieties like Ouachita, Navaho, Natchez and the new primocane variety Reuben [have been developed] by the world renowned breeder from the University of Arkansas, Professor John Clark, with whom Hargreaves Plants has a private breeding arrangement,” he says. “It is the company’s belief that it will be these better eating varieties that will ultimately transform and expand the UK consumption of blackberries. All of these new varieties are very sweet with high sugar content and low acid. I expect we will see retailers transferring to these varieties in the very near future.”
Marketing plans are now in place for the season. While the major retailers are remaining tight-lipped about their plans, the industry-run British Summer Fruits campaign has extensive plans designed to target families and children. This year, the ban on product placement on TV has been lifted and the campaign intends to work with The X Factor, having berries placed in the judges and contestants’ dressing rooms during this year’s series.
The campaign will also focus on weddings, targeting bridal publications with recipes for traditional cakes and puddings suitable for weddings and hen parties. And the initiative will also provide recipe suggestions to publications suitable for families with young children, such as berry jellies and berry ice lollies.
Individual companies are also developing their own marketing campaigns. Hargreaves Plants has launched an online social media campaign called Berrybuddies through Twitter (@berrybuddies) and facebook (www.facebook.com/berrybuddies). The idea is to engage with consumers around the world to discuss the qualities of Hargreaves’ berry varieties. “This direct interaction and feedback from consumers will help us provide real life tasting information to pass on to our customers,” says Hargreaves.
So the 2011 picture is looking good. Innovations such as BerryWorld’s mixed packs of soft fruit, larger packs of blueberries, and strawberry boxes for weekends and bank holidays have resulted in incremental sales, says Olins. And premium berry varieties are growing in popularity. Snell believes the trend towards ‘affordable treats’ ties in with this. “Jubilee is definitely the best tasting strawberry variety and it is good to see that consumers are happy to spend a little more money. The premium market for strawberries appears to be regaining its importance with the supermarkets, which is very encouraging,” he says. Marston agrees: “£1.99 a punnet really isn’t a lot of money compared to an alcoholic drink or a box of chocolates and it is a nice treat, particularly in the UK season.”
The UK crop is just beginning to come to market, but it looks like the combination of good weather, imaginative marketing and exciting new varieties is creating a promising outlook for the 2011 berry season.
VARIETY IS STILL SPICING UP BERRIES
Aside from the developments in blackberries, there are also new sweet-eating raspberries and strawberries hitting the market in greater quantities than ever before.
BerryWorld is focussing its efforts on one strawberry variety this year, Sweet Eve, with growers producing it in larger quantities than ever before. This year, BerryWorld’s growers will produce more than 6,000 tonnes of the berry for The Co-operative, M&S, Tesco and Waitrose - a year on year increase of more 300 per cent.
The Portola strawberry is also being touted for further growth by Hargreaves Plants. According to Rupert Hargreaves, managing director, the variety offers an extremely high yield of Class I fruit and suits table-top production well.“Portola is accepted by Sainsbury’s and Asda and will be more widely presented to other leading retailers this summer,” he says.
Hargreaves adds that Erika, a primocane raspberry (pictured), is also having a significant effect: “It is a fantastic primocane raspberry. The fruit quality is a serious trade up on what has previously been grown in terms of fruit size, shelf life and most important of all, flavour.”
Grower Anthony Snell is optimistic about the raspberry market. “We think some of the Driscoll varieties such as Maravilla and Cardinal are producing excellent eating characteristics and good shelf life so they are taking an increasing part of the market and pleasing the consumer.”
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