After making a positive impact with retailers and consumers in the UK, Good Natured Fruit, the pesticide-free soft-fruit brand, has jumped the Irish Sea.
Dunnes Stores in Ireland put its first Good Natured Fruit branded strawberries and raspberries, produced by Scottish-based Angus Soft Fruits (ASF), on shelf last Thursday.
It is the first time that ASF has exported its fruit, said John Gray, commercial manager of the company. “This is the first move to Ireland for our new brand, following its successful introduction through Sainsbury’s and Tesco in the UK. As Dunnes Stores has a majority share of the Irish berry market, this represents a significant development.
“Generally speaking, [the brand] has gone down very well with retailers and consumers. They like it, but it is very much like creating a new category and that doesn’t happen overnight,” he told FPJ.
Good Natured Fruit is the culmination of a five-year project to eliminate the use of artificial pesticides on ASF soft fruit.
The production method, which combines the use of beneficial predators combined with a high level of pest and disease monitoring, now covers 20 per cent of ASF’s total production, 40 per cent of its Ava strawberry variety and 40 per cent of its raspberry volume.
A spokesman for Dunnes Stores said: “Shoppers want affordable, flavoursome fruit and are increasingly conscious about the use of artificial pesticides. This is particularly important to parents with young children.
“As a significant proportion of soft fruit is eaten by children under 10 years of age, the proposition of soft fruit that is free of artificial pesticides is particularly relevant to our customers.”
Gray added: “We see ourselves at the forefront of a new category that in theory could extend to a very wide range of produce in the future.”
