Leading UK berry marketer Berry Gardens has revealed that its Driscoll Jubilee strawberry variety has bucked the trend of slumping sales in the premium soft fruit market, with like-for-like sales increasing by 17 per cent during the first-half of 2009.
According to the company, production of Driscoll Jubilees increased from 358 tonnes in 2008 to 420 tonnes this year, overall growth of 62 tonnes.
Speaking at Fruit Focus 2009, Berry Gardens' managing director Nick Marston said the marketer had had a much better first-half of 2009 compared with the previous year.
Mr Marston said that the standard strawberry market in the UK had grown by just over 13 per cent through the first-half of the year, with volume growth at Berry Gardens' parent company TG Growers marginally exceeding the market average.
'Retailers have been very supportive this year, with some considerable footage given over to berries and a high level of promotional activity undertaken, which has resulted in an excellent level of sales given the challenging economic climate,' he said. 'We expect to see some considerable deflation in the market, with greater offerings of budget strawberries, but, in the event, these sales have been fairly modest.'
Mr Marston said that although sales of higher value lines, such as premium strawberries and organic fruit, had suffered a setback in 2008/09, sales of Berry Gardens' Jubilee variety were rising.
Despite the overall premium market falling by 10 per cent this year, Mr Marston said sales of Driscoll Jubilee had increased by 17 per cent over last year.
'2009 is the year when Driscoll Jubilee has taken its rightful place in the market as the premium strawberry,' he added. 'We have seen our sales volumes increase and our share of the premium market rise from 55 per cent to over 75 per cent from 2008 to 2009, and we expect the premium market to be dominated by this wonderful strawberry in 2010.'
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