“The uptake on raspberries has increased but not quickly enough,” said BerryWorld managing director Adam Olins. “Customers are used to large strawberry volumes, which were still available when raspberries became available this season. Supermarkets are generally not set up to handle large levels quickly for non-established promotional lines, such as raspberries, and many only provide the shelf space into the third week of the season, too long after the first supplies hit the market.”
This season, raspberry crops had a delayed start because of weather conditions, which resulted in a bigger volume becoming available in a flush - raspberries experienced a 10-12 day lag in supermarket take-up. This peak clashed with strong strawberry promotions, which meant the product lines were in competition, making it difficult for raspberries to get key shelf space in supermarket stores and resulting in a proportion of the crop being wasted.
BerryWorld’s raspberry volumes were up 50 per cent on last year and the group faces a new challenge in handling the growing pains of a booming line.
Speaking to the Journal at Fruit Focus, Olins said: “Many people have invested heavily in raspberry production; the industry needs to learn how to handle the situation of a crop peaking and how to crank up shelf space.”
The raspberry season will continue until October and Olins stressed that planning now needs to incorporate both promotional and post-promotional activity, which finishes in the first week of August. “It is necessary to assess how the market handles the supply because post-promotions, volumes are still available and will only continue to increase. This situation happened with strawberries initially, so we can learn from that experience. The raspberry season is five-six months long - our aim is to sell more volumes and we could have done so at the start of the season with the right planning,” he said.
Sales figures are encouraging so far this season, and sales were maintained throughout July. Olins expect sales to be good across all lines of soft-fruit.
“Nowadays we have a long season and we are only half way through. We aim to have a flat, constant supply throughout and use a range of varieties and techniques to maintain this,” he said.
Looking ahead, BerryWorld has exclusive commercial rights for the everbearing strawberry variety, Evie3, currently being grown on a small scale. It will be commercially available next season. Olins said he was happy the turnout at this year’s Fruit Focus: “The event was well attended by a fair amount of our growers and customers.”
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