Home-grown strawberries make up one of the most iconic offers on the shelves, marking the start of British summertime and remaining the most sought-after berry ahead of raspberries, blueberries and blackberries throughout the summer.
This season started with glasshouse production in early April and will now build throughout May to reach a sustained peak through June, which will then continue to October or November, with more glasshouse volumes.
So far, bursts of sun and higher-than-average temperatures in the spring have helped to boost both supply and demand at a time when the category is gearing up for its peak. Growers have started to pick the first tunnel fruit in the South East, with reasonable volumes set to come onto the market this week. The Scottish season, on the other hand, is shaping up to be a week later than normal as a result of cooler temperatures and fruit is set to hit the market in volume in the first week of June.
For now, up to a third of strawberry demand is being met by home-grown fruit and the May bank holiday sunshine was well timed to kick off consumption, with both growers and suppliers hoping that this momentum will continue throughout the season.
It is expected that the early arrival of home-grown fruit will extend the season compared to previous years and make for smaller peaks, higher overall yield - with an additional 8,000 tonnes to the 60,000t total for the UK season - and a more stable market.
The mix of UK varieties ready to hit the market is a dynamic one, with Elsanta still a favourite and Sonata gaining in popularity, while a number of newer varieties - including early Lambada, Camarillo, Sweet Eve and Eve’s Delight - are helping to prolong and improve the home-grown offer.
Dave Ashton, procurement director at BerryWorld, says this could be an “interesting” season, as volumes are already ahead of last year and the crop has come on much quicker, with “excellent” fruit quality. “If you go back to December and January, it was colder than average and everyone thought we would see a late season,” he says. “But conditions have been reasonable since March, with good levels of sunshine and temperatures. You have to be optimistic at the start of the season, but we need the weather with us and for the sun to shine more often than it rains.”
However, there are a number of challenges waiting for the soft-fruit sector as the UK season gets underway.
First up, it seems that with consumers trying to save money where they can, the weather really will hold the key to the season this year and after two wash-out summers, growers and suppliers are hoping for a bit of a turnaround.
John Gray, commercial director at Scotland-based Angus Soft Fruits, maintains that only summer sunshine will override economic factors. “Everyone is apprehensive, concerned; call it what you will,” he says. “At the end of the day, it comes down to the weather. This could be the first year in three that we will have a good June and July. If it is warm in early June moving into Wimbledon, it will be a good season. If not, it will exasperate concerns.”
These views are shared across the sector, with most keeping an eye on the weather forecast as a crystal ball for how the season might play out, especially now that consumers are watching their spending.
Nick Marston, managing director of Berry Gardens, insists that berry sales are holding up well considering the circumstances. “The difficult economic conditions will mean that consumers will not buy big price-tag items such as cars and holidays, but they will treat themselves at home,” he says. “Having said that, there will be promotions to achieve sales.”
The concept of the ‘staycation’, with people set to holiday at home or within the UK this year, should boost the category as shoppers use some of the money saved on travelling and hotels to enjoy themselves at home. This will only boost the soft-fruit category, often perceived as a treat and summertime favourite, as long as the weather holds up.
Steve Sadler, account manager at AMS Ltd, says UK fruit is looking in good shape, but he maintains that whether demand will be hit by economic factors remains “the great unknown”.
“Everything has been against us up until now; the exchange rate with the euro has made fruit more expensive both for suppliers and at retailers,” he says. “We will have to take each week as it comes. We have to make sure we cover all our costs and make sure we sell all our fruit.
“It may be that smaller packs with lower price points could be the way forward.
“We need to make sure that growers get sustainable returns that allow them to be here next year and the year after that, because quite a few UK growers have disappeared, yet demand remains the same and if strawberries do not come from the UK, where will they come from?
“The industry has to be sensible, but it is down to the marketing desks and how they play it. Sometimes, when they are fighting for market share, they can do silly things.”
But the major players agree that the soft-fruit category as a whole is still showing potential for growth, even in the well-established strawberry sub-category.
David Johnston,technical director at Wellpict European, warns that the sector must remain sustainable if it is to secure its long-term future. “There is a downturn in berry sales to date because imported crops are more expensive to purchase, leading to higher retail price points,” he says. “But there is no good reason why, with a better summer than the last two, sales of UK fruit should not be better than during the import seasons.
“The category still has growth potential, but at a lesser rate than in past years,” he continues. “Grower returns are the first to come under pressure in difficult periods, leading to reduced expansion, which then leads to retailers asking why there is almost always a shortage of fruit - kind of a question that really answers itself…
“All good years are early years, so as long as May is about average for sunshine and temperature, we could have a good one - smiles for growers and retailers,” he adds.
But there are still some obstacles facing the soft-fruit sector, not least rising production costs and diminishing returns. The price of fertiliser, steel, tunnel covers and fuel all saw rises above levels of general inflation during 2007 and 2008, with the cost of fertilisers almost doubling. These have fallen this year, but by less than growers and suppliers would have liked to see as they are still above 2007 levels, while the exchange rate means that plants produced overseas are now 30-40 per cent more expensive than they were in 2007.
“The economic situation means there is not a reasonable prospect for higher retail prices and we expect them to be similar to previous seasons,” says Marston. “This means it will be very important for growers to focus on yield and efficiency.”
But on the plus side, the labour issue seems to have faded since Home Office minister Phil Woolas last year announced an increase in the size of the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme (SAWS) quota, allowing 5,000 more workers into the UK this year. Only 16,250 low-skilled workers were allowed into the UK for up to six months last year under the SAWS and the sector-based schemes, but that figure is now likely rise by 5,000, with the decision up for review again at the end of the year.
The move was welcomed by the trade and should ease the pressure, with early signs that fears for more labour shortfalls this season will not be as acute as they were at this time last year.
“The workforce from eastern Europe was not as keen to travel to the UK in 2008 as there were more jobs closer to home and sterling was a less attractive currency,” says Johnston. “However, this year we have a very good percentage of returnees and a greater availability of people turning up for interviews in all the countries we recruit from.”
But labour costs have still increased by 50 per cent in the last four years and this remains a long-standing hurdle.
The soft-fruit category is one of the most dynamic in the fresh produce aisles and it continues to innovate with new varieties, presentation and brands to make sure that the offer remains at the top.
Berry Gardens is running commercial trials on June-bearer Cordelia, bred by the KG Growers breeding programme, as well as everbearers Amesti and Pasedena, both in their first year of commercial production.
Angus Soft Fruits is preparing for its second year of substantial home-grown volumes of its Good Natured Fruit-branded pesticide-free fruit, with demand for Spanish fruit much higher than expected ahead of the start of UK supply.
BerryWorld is set to market its first commercial quantities of everbearer varieties Sweet Eve and Eve’s Delight, which extend the ever-bearer season from early May through to the end of October.
The UK strawberry sector is better equipped than most to deal with the challenges that lie ahead this season, whether they are related to the economic climate, mounting costs and the squeeze on margins, or the supply of the fruit itself. How the season will work out remains to be seen but, with public favour on its side, the sector should come out smiling.
TAKING AN ALL-ROUND APPROACH
Robert Lidstone, marketing and business development manager at Certis UK, on how UK growers can take a whole crop approach to strawberry production.
Strawberry production in the UK has undergone a massive transformation in the last 10 years, with 80 per cent of the crop now grown under protection in a move that was essential to enable growers to supply retailers with home-grown, quality fruit over an extended period.
Growers have the unenviable task of producing Class I fruit while meeting increasing consumer demand for produce without pesticide residues. While growing under protection has considerably decreased the risks of some pests and diseases, the opposite applies to others, meaning control strategies that have both minimal residue potential and maximum efficacy are the order of the day.
As such, pesticides remain an important part of crop production, with their strategic use integrated with a host of other control measures, including the use of natural predators. In strawberries, these are often used to control pests such as spider mite, which can be a real problem in the higher temperatures afforded under protection.
Growers need to be able to supplement the fire-power of predators at times when the pest reproduces faster than the predators can control them. And they need to do this without killing the useful predators in the crop. Floramite is the latest Certis addition to the strawberry growers’ armoury for controlling spider mite and delivers the all-important control that growers need, while being safe to the majority of beneficial insects and natural predators. Importantly, it is from a completely new class of chemistry and while judicious use is important given the seven-day harvest interval, there is no cross-resistance with any other products.
Certis has been investing in new solutions for growers for many years, providing them with pesticides that can form part of an integrated control strategy. Many, like Floramite, can be used alongside biological controls from sister company Certis BCP. Other developments, such as Majestik, work as a physical barrier and provide growers with pest control that has no requirement for a harvest interval and can be applied to the fruiting crop.
An important part of the Certis ethos is that a pest or disease infestation should not be considered as an isolated event. There is much more to it. Keeping inoculum levels at a minimum is vital and measures that do not involve application of chemicals to the growing crop can help achieve this.
Getting crops off to a clean start begins before planting and using soil sterilant, Basamid, is one way of getting rid of inoculum lurking in the soil and on crop debris. Another part of production that can easily be overlooked is irrigation; cleaning the pipes at the outset by using a disinfectant like Jet 5 can stop the spread of disease. Paying attention to detail before cropping can dramatically reduce the need for pesticide application to the crop itself and that is why we view hygiene as such an important issue in crop production systems.
Yet, inevitably, some pests and diseases are an annual problem, despite the best hygiene and preventative measures. Anticipating such issues and using chemistry before fruiting is important, but in-crop treatments are also necessary. There are now a growing number of modern, target-specific treatments available that deliver pest control in a different way to older chemistry, with many of the worst-offending treatments now having been removed from the market.
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