The UK strawberry season is now officially underway.The first British-grown strawberries of the year hit shop shelves last week (w/c 2 March), with Wales setting the pace and providing the UK’s earliest strawberries to retail for the first time.
This positive start to 2015 –aided by a mild winter – follows on the back of positive data for the UK soft-fruit market in 2014.Ian Waller, commercial director at Total Berry, says: “The last few months have seen continued growth for most berry categories. Continued varietal development and improvement continues to drive repeat purchases. From a Total Berry perspective, we’ve seen significant growth from our Redeva strawberry varieties over the last few months both in the UK and Europe, and we’re also enjoying great demand for blueberry varieties from our African Blue JV.”
The buzz around the latter product is approaching near-deafening levels. Manuela Leyba, commercial manager at Early Crop, an Argentine blueberry supplier to the UK, says: “The blueberry market seems to be growing. We understand there is a greater awareness of the health benefits blueberries provide, which enables demand in countries which were not first in consumption to grow significantly.”
Stephen Taylor, MD of UK supermarket soft-fruit supplier Winterwood, is at the heart of the burgeoning blueberry market, having identified the product as the “next big thing” in 1999, and adapting his business – which has growing operations in both Poland and South Africa – accordingly.
He says: “The last year has been a good period for soft fruit, in terms of both growing and selling. Poland and South Africa had above average years in terms of tonnage. In South Africa, price was higher due to trouble in key supply regions, plus a weak rand meant our growers there received about 20 per cent more for their fruit, with volume up by 25 per cent.”
Taylor claims South African supply filled the gaps in the market at the end of 2014 after Argentina’s UK blueberry supply dried up because of “quality issues”.
He is adamant that South Africa, better known for its citrus and stonefruit, will continue to make its late-season presence felt: “South Africa is now a major player in blueberries for the UK pre-season,” Taylor says. “Production is up exponentially – we’ve had 2,000 tonnes this year, and expect to see 3,000t next year.”
Both Waller and Taylor talk up work that is underway to boost the taste and appearance of blueberry varieties, and Taylor believes blueberries could have a penetration rate akin to strawberries in around 20 years’ time. Nevertheless, he adds: “We’d never want to be in the business of playing one soft-fruit product off against the other.”
At the start of this year, Morocco and Spain have had a part to play in UK soft-fruit supply, although neither have been without their troubles. Waller says: “The weather in Spain and Morocco post-Christmas has – as always – led to some challenges in supply, but right now it looks as though the season is starting in earnest.”
There’s seemingly never a dull moment in soft fruit these days, and as Waller notes: “There’s been a huge amount of change in the industry, probably more in the last 18 months than in the last 18 years, as the category continues to adapt and evolve with ever-changing customer requirements and models.”
Taylor, meanwhile, suggests keeping an eye on blackberries going forward: “They have enormous potential, but have been held back by the varieties available,” he says. “Future developments should help change this, and you want to see them marketed a bit more differently. Instead of just ‘blackberries’, you could have ‘cooking’ or ‘dessert’, as you need to differentiate by sugar content. Consumers wouldn’t want to bite into a Bramley apple, for instance, and they’re set apart from other apples as a result.”
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