A group of Scottish honeyberry growers have formed a new producer organisation and hope to increase production of the niche berry to 5,000 acres across the country in the next decade.
The Honeyberry Cooperative has four founding members across Scotland and will be chaired by grower Stewart Arbuckle.
It has received support from Scottish food and drink advisory service, Connect Local, which has run a series of workshops including an introduction to branding, as well as helped with forming a business proposition, legal structure and a member’s agreement.
Arbuckle said: “As a newly established producer group, we needed guidance on setting up and getting our names out there. We are now looking to the future and our plan is to establish a supply group and build our membership from there.
“Finally, our next big challenge will be working on launching new, added value, premium honeyberry products to the market. We hope to continue working with Connect Local through this process and we are extremely excited for this next stage for our group.”
