There will be no prizes for guessing the topic on most people’s minds and lips when they visit Fruit Focus in Kent next week.

While the berry category has largely steered clear of the weather-beating taken by the exposed top-fruit crop, it is still suffering at the hands of Mother Nature, as demand drops off with the unseasonal temperatures and lashing rain.

In the almost dim and distant past, of course, weather-induced shortages would have been a near-guaranteed boost for growers everywhere, as the demand and supply equation did its bit and everyone along the chain, including the consumer, coughed up a few more pence to keep world order.

Now, as we see with the grape supply situation inside, suppliers are reduced to having to beseech their retail customers to show some unity with their supplier ‘partners’. In a couple of months, English apple growers will more than likely be making the same plea, if they don’t get in earlier.

With the promotional vehicle at the beginning of every season seemingly driven by price, it will be interesting to see whether the retailers choose to show some initiative and promote purely on the home-grown ticket, rather than on price.

“It never rains, but it pours” has rarely rung more true. But it is not just the dark skies casting a pall over the industry. There is only one link in the chain that can lift the gloom; but will it?

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