Scottish soft-fruit grower Angus Soft Fruits (ASF) is searching for suitable partners to extend its Good Natured Fruit brand beyond the berry category.
The brand, now in its second season, is grown using a comprehensive blueprint for pesticide-free production put together after extensive research by ASF technical director Dave Griffiths.
Trials for new Good Natured Fruit categories could be underway next season.
The team developed the soft-fruit brand in response to research that showed consumers did not want pesticides used on their food.
Griffiths told FPJ: “The obvious route for the objectives we had was to move into organic production, but we did not want to rely on soil production systems and we found that we could ease disease pressure by lifting production to increase air circulation. We did not want to use any pesticides at all but, rather than compromise our idea, we decided to go down the Good Natured Fruit route.
“The brand gives a clear message to the consumer, at an affordable price.
“It works so well, so why not look at product areas that we are not specifically involved in and reinforce the brand? We are in the process of actively looking for suitable partners; it could be top-fruit growers, salad growers, anyone - we want to sit down with people and tell them about our production processes and put them in our crop so we can fill in the gaps in our R&D approach.”
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