The soft-fruit sector is continuing to battle though the “very, very tough” summer, now that supply and demand has fallen out of balance.
Home-grown strawberries have overcome a three week glut to reach a much-welcomed plateau.
UK raspberries, on the other hand, are still in short supply, with production down by a third following a run of wet weather and cold temperatures in the last few weeks.
Two waves of “aggressive” price promotions in the category have served to distort supply and demand.
John Gray, commercial director at Scotland-based Angus Soft Fruits, said both the strawberry and raspberry markets have proved tricky and he insisted that “growers have not been paid enough”.
But, if the weather improves next week, the supply situation should right itself, Gray added.
Steve Sadler, account director at AMS Marketing, said supermarket price deals on strawberries failed to benefit the crop as much as they could have. He said: “If the deals were on at different times, they would have absorbed the surplus. We normally get a kick for two or three weeks after prices revert back to normal, but because volumes have now stabilised we have not fulfilled potential sales volumes.
“It has been a very, very tough summer and sales have not been as high as the industry would have liked.”
A mini heatwave forecast for the weekend could help get supply and demand back on track.
But suppliers are bracing themselves for a tricky September, when demand traditionally tails off as the season peters out, because there is still decent soft-fruit volume available.
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