There's nothing like being in the midst of a good season to put a spring in the step at a trade day, and Fruit Focus in the heart of Kent last week proved no exception.

In my experience growers tend to be cautious and even suspicious when it comes to talking money, but the evidence points towards English cherry, strawberry and raspberry seasons heading for their best performances for many years.

Just how much it was a combination of good growing conditions, summer sunshine and the limited arrival of competitive Continental stone fruit will be for the marketing experts to decide when the line is finally drawn in the sales ledger.

But I would agree with the luminaries present that the industry has gone through a radical change in the last decade, and is radiating confidence. More fruit is being grown and the time must surely be approaching where exclusive niche varieties will, play a far larger part in the soft fruit offer.

If the days of poor packed fruit, melting before it reached the shelf are becoming a memory due to better handling and above all refrigeration, growers can rightly take credit.

But I feel multiple retailers too ñ often castigated publicly for their commitment should take a bow. The underlying factor of course, is that English soft fruit is now big business worth millions of pounds.

The fact that the majority of supermarket press offices this year have been eager to extol massive sales increases also reflects the fight for market share is getting fiercer and fiercer.

Academic David Hughes was right when he also observed at one of the Focus seminars that all growers can negotiate much better with retailers when they have not just a good product, but also the detailed and accurate marketing information to go with it.

The berry industry certainly came of age last week.

On another tack I've been fascinated watching the progress of Pink Lady, surely a wonder apple in the short time since I attended the launch of the variety only 12 years ago at West Australia House in the Strand.

Volumes have built with amazing rapidity world-wide and the trademarked fruit has established a new concept of supply and demand. There are not many retailers today that do not have Pink Lady on their shelves.

However, its successful future must also depend to some extent on the reception given to that fruit which is either not encircled by the “club” or indeed is outside the high colour and size specification as the crop continues to expand and needs to find a market.

In Suffolk last week I even cane across a farm shop where the latter were being sold as “Crisp Pink” ñ to my mind a far better, even if honestly mistaken description ñ if Mr Cripps will forgive me.

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