A project to support horticulture businesses across Wales is set to run for at least another year after it won additional funding worth £100,000.
Horticulture Wales, which is based at Glyndwr University’s Northop campus, has secured the investment from the Welsh Assembly Government’s Supply Chain Efficiency Scheme, part of the Rural Development Plan for Wales.The extra funding brings the total support Horticulture Wales has received to £1.74 million and guarantees the project, which had been scheduled to end this November, will now continue until at least November 2014.
Launched in November 2010 originally as a three-year initiative, Horticulture Wales aims to improve supply chains in the horticulture industry through networking events, study trips and reports provided to support Welsh fruit and vegetable producers.
“This extra funding will be used to build on the project’s existing knowledge base, while we have also identified four new additional priorities that we believe will have a significant impact on the overall competitiveness of the Welsh horticulture sector,” said Dr David Skydmore, project director of Horticulture Wales.
These include a project to help growers use QR codes to help market their businesses; an economic analysis of horticulture crops in Wales, which will be used to encourage landowners to diversify into horticulture production; information on environmentally-sustainable packaging; and information on changing pesticide legislation.
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