Home-grown berries make up one of the most iconic offers on the shelves, marking the start of British summertime and, as such, remaining very dependent on the weather.
This has caused some difficulties over the last two summers, when wash-outs in July and August did little to inspire either supply or demand.
But so far this year, UK soft fruit is enjoying a very promising run of things, with a series of sunny weekends and temperatures over the bank holiday and last weekend exceeding 25°C helping to boost sales and get fruit moving, just as UK berries gear up for their peak.
The early arrival of home-grown fruit should extend the season compared to previous years and make for smaller peaks, higher overall yield - some say an additional 8,000 tonnes to the 60,000t total for the UK season - and a more steady market.
The majority of suppliers are getting ready for their peaks in the weeks commencing June 7 and 14, just ahead of the Wimbledon fortnight, when supplies are expected to be “short, short, short”, says one supplier.
This means that when it comes to it, there are likely to be more imports than usual around to cover demand, especially if the warm weather holds up. The key alternative is likely to be the US, given that Dutch supplies traditionally mirror UK fruit and could well follow the same supply pattern.
These issues aside, soft-fruit players are generally optimistic for the season and have their fingers crossed for a stable market after a couple of tricky years.
So how is the industry coming together to work what could potentially be the best season for a number of years to its advantage?
At the retailers, the battle is on to secure the best shelf space in the fresh produce aisles. “It is important to get the best spot and it is down to the retail buyer to make sure they get the end space at the peak of supply,” says one supplier. “At the moment, a lot depends on the right promotions because it is all about offers. How well this will work depends on what is next to the berries and what the other promotions are.
“Some are going down the two-for-X route, some are going for £1.99 for 454g and others are reducing pack weights to hit lower price points.
“The UK season is looking good and the good weather over the last few weekends has helped sales tremendously,” he continues. “The long-term forecast is good and we know that if we have reasonably sunny weather this summer, returns to growers will stay up. However, if it rains like last year, prices will come down and growers will have an okay time of it.”
It looks as if the quality and flavour seen so far across UK berries will help the foodservice sector push ahead with its mission to “put British berries on British menus”.
On the wholesale side, traders believe this season is “very exciting” and have seen strong sales over the last few weeks that have fluctuated only slightly with changes in the weather.
As always, there is much support around for home-grown berries, especially in favour of imported product when in season. This theme was perhaps taken a little far at last week’s Re:fresh Conference, where celebrity greengrocer Gregg Wallace said that having strawberries available year round “dilutes the beauty and splendour” of English strawberries. He said that he would like to see UK consumers “turning their backs” on imported berries when home-grown fruit is in season.
But a freshinfo poll asking whether the industry agreed with these views generated mixed results.
One respondent wrote: “Has Mr Wallace been out of his office recently? The buzz around UK strawberries is terrific at present, so I think this says it all - there is room for both, and the consumers decide what excites them!”
Another put: “Beauty and splendour should be requirements of the British market for all strawberries, regardless of whether the fruit is British or foreign. Having any fruit and vegetable year round is a blessing for consumers.”
The remaining top three berries - raspberries, blueberries and blackberries - are each set for a decent run on the home-grown front.
UK glasshouse raspberries have been on the market for the last three weeks or so and supply is now gathering pace. But suppliers warn that there will be lower volumes produced this year because returns over the last few seasons have been unsustainable and the cost of production is still one of the highest of all berries.
Home-grown blackberries grown under glass have been available for roughly the same time, but there have been a few issues with retailers holding back from positioning British packs when there are plenty of cheaper Spanish volumes still on the shelves.
The first volumes of English blueberries came on stream this week and the Spanish season is now over its peak.
It seems that, overall, berry players are optimistic for the UK berry season and the future of the category. “If you ask me today, I am very optimistic for the UK soft-fruit season,” says an insider. “Ask me tomorrow, and I might change my mind. The most important thing is that we continue to be consistent and supply top-quality fruit throughout the UK season. And, of course, that the sun keeps shining.”
EMR BUILDS ON RESEARCH BASE
the UK soft-fruit category must remain sustainable in terms of profit and competitiveness as well as on the environmental front, say strawberry breeder David Simpson and environmental physiologist Mark Else, both from East Malling Research (EMR).
To remain profitable and competitive, British strawberry growers need to produce berries over the longest possible season and many growers schedule their production by using the 60-day cropping system. However, the choice of varieties is limited, as many do not perform well as 60-day plants. In recent years, research funded by DEFRA has enabled EMR strawberry breeders to investigate this and study the inheritance of traits that contribute to a high 60-day yield. This is now paying dividends with two new EMR varieties, Elegance and Sasha, being tested in commercial-scale trials this season.
Elegance produces very attractive, uniform, large berries with a high 60-day yield and a large percentage of Class I fruit. It offers an alternative to Elsanta for production in the soil or on table-top systems and is well suited for growing either under tunnels or outdoors.
Sasha is a specialist glasshouse variety that has already been on sale at two major supermarkets this year. It has advantages over Dutch variety Sonata in giving a high yield per square metre from a lower planting density. The berries are large, giving rapid harvesting, and the season is longer than for Sonata. Meiosis Ltd holds the licences for both Elegance and Sasha, and plants will be available from several UK propagators for the 2010 season.
Strawberry breeding at EMR is now jointly funded by DEFRA and the Strawberry Breeding Club. Harvesting on the maincrop June-bearer trial began last week and there are many new selections that look very promising. Growers will have the opportunity to judge for themselves at the Horticultural Development Company and EMRA Trial Walk on June 9, which begins at EMR at 6pm.
On the environmental side, current unsustainable rates of water abstraction, increasing competition for supplies and the need to comply with new legislation mean that growers in major strawberry-growing regions must use irrigation water more efficiently. However, scheduling irrigation (matching demand with supply) to commercial field-grown crops is difficult in changeable weather conditions and new guidelines are needed to help growers to improve their water-use efficiencies. A recent survey conducted as part of the HortLINK project HL0187 showed that, on average, UK strawberry growers use 70 tonnes of irrigation water to produce 1t of Class I fruit, while some growers use twice that amount.
Our ongoing HortLINK project aims to develop irrigation strategies to help growers use less water while continuing to produce high yields of flavoursome, healthy fruit. Results from 2008 field trials at EMR showed that commercial yields (equivalent to 10.4t of Class I fruit per acre) could be produced from main-season Elsanta plants using 75 per cent less water than current best practice. When irrigation was scheduled effectively, sweetness of tertiary berries was also improved and concentrations of important bioactives (e.g. ellagic acid) were increased. This year, deficit irrigation techniques are being developed to deliver further water savings, while improving berry quality. Work with substrate-grown Elsanta has already shown that flavour-volatile production and vitamin C content can be improved under mild deficit regimes.
Fruit Focus 2009 offers more opportunities to find out about EMR’s work. See p15 for details.
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