As model Sophie Anderton launched the strawberry season this week in eye-catching fashion, the UK soft-fruit industry has been spared the ravages of one of the wettest Mays on record through its use of polytunnels and has been using the fact to its media advantage.
“The last two weeks of May saw a lot of rainfall, and early season availability and quality of strawberries would have been affected dramatically if it were not for polytunnels,” said Nicholas Marston, md at KG Fruits.”
The National Farmers Union has used the wet conditions late on in the spring to highlight the importance of the structures that are often unpopular with their neighbours and TV personalities. “The advantages of polytunnels far outweigh the negative aspects of this method of fruit production for everyone,” said Board of Horticulture member Anthony Snell. “In an average year, 40 per cent of the crop would otherwise be damaged by rainfall and this year most of the early crop would have been ruined.”
Marston paid tribute to the work done by British Summer Fruits. “British Summer Fruits has done a good pr job, but growers also need to be sensitive to the fact that polytunnels can be a problem to neighbouring houses,” he said. “There is a voluntary code of practice drawn up by BSF and the NFU which should be followed.”
Meanwhile, BSF launched the strawberry season this week with this stunning photograph of model Sophie Anderton who is the public face of British berries this year.
So far the image has appeared in different editions of eight national tabloids as well as Hello! Magazine’s website and print edition for next week. “It is unbelievable,” said Lucy Rickett of Re:fresh Award winning Sputnik Communications. “We are really pleased with the coverage so far.”
Further images of Anderton will follow to feature on www.superberries.co.uk which went live on June 1 including one of her wearing a bikini featuring the Cross of St George and the slogan “Support England - eat berries” as BSF ties in with the World Cup to create news for berries in June.
“We are working with sports nutritionist Antony Haynes and targeting the long-lead press too,” said Rickett. “He will be explaining why footballers eat berries and we are also working with renowned children’s food writer Annabel Karmel who has been creating World Cup recipes for us.”
Three recipes will feature in this part of the campaign: Striker Smoothie, Midfield Madness and Rooney’s Raspberry Shortbread, all encouraging consumers to eat more British berries. “And The Sun will be doing an article on why Rooney should eat berries for his metatarsal,” explained Rickett.
Laurence Olins, chairman of British Summer Fruits has been delighted with the media response so far. “We are really pleased with the initial coverage so early on in the season,” he said. “If it carries on like this through the summer, we will be onto a winner. We are hoping that British strawberry sales will be 15 per cent up this year on last.”
Although the season has been running late, it is starting to catch up now. “At the moment we are level pegging with last year,” said Marston. “We have had a good amount of fruit available this week and main season production should begin next week.”
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