THERE IS still growth in the soft fruit market according to Lochy Porter, managing director of Angus Soft Fruits, writes Ewan Pate, farming editor.

“We still have a huge advantage in Scotland with temperatures here on the Angus coast often 10 degrees centigrade lower than in the south of England. It stops fruit ripening too quickly and allows us to plan production,” he said.

“The secret is knowing when the crop will be coming and scheduling input to the eight packhouses within the ASF business.”

Based at Mr Porter’s farm at East Seaton near Arbroath, ASF handles the strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries produced by 23 growers in Tayside and Fife during an extended summer season and also imports fruit from countries as diverse as Spain, Israel, Holland, Chile and Mexico.

The aim is to supply berries to multiple retailers for 12 months of the year.

Soft fruit is big business, with latest data showing the UK market having a retail value of £645 million.

ASF now reckons to supply 16% of the volume on average, with its share of the raspberry market nearer 33%. At this time of the year production can reach 120 tonnes per day.

ASF commercial director John Gray said, “There is room for growth and no sign of the market topping out.

“Last year was very flat, partly due to the poor weather, but so far this has been a great summer and the market is increasing.”

The two constants in the modern production system are polytunnels and large numbers of pickers, nearly all from eastern Europe. But to maintain momentum it is clear that there is a need for constant innovation.

Last season ASF introduced Good Natured Fruit, which is not organic but is pesticide-free. The system relies on constant monitoring for insect pests and then targeted use of predator species on “hot spots.”

This year the concept has been widened in two ways. Firstly, new biodegradable packaging has been introduced. The punnets can be composted after use, as can the transparent lids which are made of cellulose.

Sales of Good Natured fruit are currently running at over £300,000 per week to Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and The Co-operative.

Secondly, the Good Natured brand has been extended to include salad products grown by specialist producers in a strategic partnership with ASF. The range was introduced in May and already includes vine and baby plum tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers.

There is also a constant need for new varieties of soft fruit and ASF has its own breeding programme that has already produced the strawberry variety Ava, which is regarded as a premium fruit.

“But in these more difficult times the premium market share is dropping in the same way that it is for organics,” said Mr Porter.

“We are looking for something as good as Elsanta for volume standard production. It has to have good eating quality and a long growing season.

“We have been trialling eight new varieties and have now narrowed that down to four. We expect to be growing these new lines commercially next year.”

The balance of demand for the various fruits also has to be recognised. This year ASF and its growers expect to produce 7200 tonnes of strawberries, 1600 tonnes of raspberries, 150 tonnes of blackberries and 50 tonnes of blueberries.

Blueberries are regarded as high value sales and are now selling in similar volumes to raspberries in UK supermarkets.

“Everyone wants UK strawberries if possible and even more so with raspberries but there is not the same home-produced resonance with blueberries. They are do-able in Scotland but they are more difficult,” said Mr Gray.

Nevertheless, considerable investment in the crop is under way at East Seaton. It is planned to establish 45 acres of plantations at a cost of around £250,000.

Blueberries are slow growing naturally and can take up to five years to reach maturity but small areas already under polytunnels are showing noticeably more rapid growth.

Being a smaller fruit they are more expensive to pick than raspberries or strawberries and this will raise its own challenges.

There are over 500 people working at East Seaton during the peak of the season and many thousands more employed by the other ASF growers.

Mr Porter said, “Labour is a constant concern—last year even more than normal. This year it is fine but only just. Finding enough good labour will continue to be the big challenge.

“We are seeing a few locals applying for work, which is good, but not many. We are paying by the hour now with bonus incentives.”