Boosting berries

In a category that has grown as fast and consistently as berries in recent years, you’d be forgiven for thinking complacency might set in – soft-fruit sales have risen 39 per cent in the last five years to more than £1.8 billion, according to Kantar.

However, there is certainly no sense of this when you talk to some of the UK’s leading suppliers and breeders, who are investing in a range of measures to ensure the category’s upward trajectory continues. Some are educating consumers on berries’ nutritional benefits; some are trying to generate new eating occasions; others are increasing their focus on tiering; and almost all are bringing through great-tasting new varieties to ensure high quality year-round.

Promoting berries’ nutritional benefits might sound like something that has been done before, with most consumers aware of the antioxidants present in soft fruit, however Soloberry is trying to take this to the next level by educating shoppers on exactly how berries can improve our health – for example, by helping to bring down blood pressure, protecting against thrombosis, and strengthening our gut flora, which helps protect us from pathogens and infection. Partnering with celebrity chef and nutritionist Dale Pinnock, the supplier is looking to inspire consumers to fit more berries into their diets and engage in their own healthcare. However, as fellow supplier BerryWorld points out, challenges remain around the health claims that can be made on pack. This restricts how health messages can be communicated to consumers.

Soloberry’s nutritional drive follows hot on the heels of Veg Power‘s ‘Eat Them to Defeat Them’ campaign, which launched in January to get young people eating more vegetables and tackle rising childhood obesity. The company’s head of brand and communications Rachel Montague-Ebbs warns the campaign presents a “credible threat” to the berry sector because vegetables don’t contain as much sugar as berries (and other fruits). In some senses, therefore, vegetables have stronger healthy-eating credentials. “Veg Power is a great campaign for the produce industry as a whole, however we shouldn’t become complacent about the health benefits of berries,” she says. “We need to promote factual information about how great berries are.”

Arguably an even greater challenge for the soft-fruit sector is that while it runs successful marketing drives of its own, the budgets of these pale in comparison to the marketing clout of the big snacking brands. “As an industry we continue to push the health message at every opportunity,” says Berry Gardens’ chief executive Jacqui Green, “but since it remains cheaper to be unhealthy, for example by buying multipacks of salty snacks at the same price as punnet of strawberries, consumers often choose dependent on their budget.”

As well as educating consumers about berries’ health benefits, Montague-Ebbs stresses the importance of inspiring consumers to bring berries into all their mealtimes. “We are creating eight recipes with Dale that cross the sweet and savoury options so that berries aren’t just seen as a breakfast item,” she says. The message from Soloberry is that increasing opportunities for consumers to buy and consume berries is key to boosting sales in the UK and Europe, and Montague-Ebbs adds that Soloberry is keen to bring soft fruit “into places that haven’t been considered before” such as petrol forecourts (to oust confectionery), ‘grab-and-go’ locations such as train stations and airports, and vending machines in large office areas. “We want to have multiple touch points in store and online where people can see berries, buy berries and understand how to fit them into their lifestyle,” she says.

Another UK producer looking to generate new eating occasions for soft fruit is Chambers, which recently opened a new prepared facility called The Fruitery. Located at Chambers’ headquarters near Maidstone in Kent, it prepares ready-to-eat ‘berry medley’ pots, which combine the four major soft fruits as well as apples and grapes in various combinations. Commercial director James Miller says consumer research demonstrates “the potential for clear incremental sales” offered by such products, and Berry Gardens’ Jacqui Green emphasises that “the less traditional routes of snacking and convenience remain high on everyone’s agenda as the food-to-go market continues to thrive.” The IGD predicts that food-to-go will grow by 35 per cent to a value of £23.5 billion by 2022.

The other impact of the growing importance of snacking and convenience, she says, is that “many households are eating different foods at different times due to changes in lifestyle and increased food intolerances.” The challenge for berry suppliers, according to Green, is to meet the various requirements of different people in the same household as well as the requirements of the household as a whole.

When it comes to catering for different customers, BerryWorld says a greater focus has also been placed on tiering in supermarkets’ soft-fruit fixtures, with retailers trying to demonstrate value for money by clearly communicating the quality and flavour characteristics of their berries on shelf. As well as developing premium tiers with improved ranging and larger footprints, some retailers are developing core ranges with clear messages such as ‘super sweet’.

BerryWorld emphasises the importance of offering good value for money in order to encourage shoppers to either buy berries for the first time or repeat a purchase. Alongside quality and appearance, price is of course a major consideration for consumers, who have become accustomed to a £2 price point on berries over the last three to five years. “This can sometimes be challenging to achieve but it is important that berries remain good value for money compared to more staple fruits such as grapes,” says BerryWorld’s Paul Avery. He adds that it’s “essential” that retailers and suppliers work together to mitigate continued increases to production and transport costs.

Another thing that suppliers are continually working on is developing new varieties, and BerryWorld says blueberries have been leading the way when it comes to genetic advances in soft fruit. Increased size and improved flavour have been the focus, with the company recently securing exclusive rights to the Mountain Blue Orchards programme in Europe and Africa to help strengthen its offer. Some of the new varieties from the programme won a Superior Taste Award from the International Taste & Quality Institute (iTQi) in 2018.

Meanwhile, Chambers is commercially trialling five new raspberry varieties this summer and the wider Asplins PO, to which Chambers belongs, is trialling a number of new strawberry varieties from the likes of East Malling Research, Planasa and CIV.

Berry Gardens, for its part, will have significant commercial volumes of Driscoll’s Zara, a premium everbearing strawberry variety, available from May to October. In blueberries, the growers’ co-op is seeing its homegrown bushes reach maturity in varieties such as Driscoll’s Jolene, Sweet Jane and Barbara Ann. And Green says that while blueberries have not traditionally been produced in the UK, growers have proven that with the right varieties, they can deliver the same taste and quality offered by imported fruit.

Plenty of reasons to be cheerful in the soft-fruit category then, but labour continues to be a major challenge. A pilot seasonal workers’ scheme is in action, with 2,500 pickers being brought in from Ukraine, Moldova and Russia for the coming season, but as detailed in the Anderson Report, the British soft-fruit industry will need an estimated 31,000 workers by 2020 to match demand.

BerryWorld says UK growers appear to have enough labour for their requirements this season at least, and the supplier praises government departments for “working hard” to ensure it’s ‘business as usual’ in the event of a no-deal Brexit. In February, for example, the government announced that seasonal workers from the EU will still be allowed to come and work in the UK in 2019 and 2020, even if Britain leaves Europe without a deal. However, Chambers’ James Miller stresses that although government measures are a good start, “not enough is being done, and certainly not soon enough”.

To reduce reliance on labour, and optimise growing conditions, Green says Berry Gardens is “embracing” automation. Not only is the group installing high-spec grading machinery in its cherry packhouses, it is also using automated door-opening systems on its tunnels that operate 24 hours a day to manage the unpredictable British weather. “The roll-out of precision irrigation systems also frees up many man hours,” Green adds, “as well as using water responsibly and ensuring the plants receive the optimum amount of water and nutrition.”

When it comes to robotic harvesting, she believes robotic picking remains a good seven to ten years off commercialisation “since berries are quite delicate, and human eyes, decision skills and dexterity are not an easy thing to copy”. But as labour sourcing becomes increasingly difficult, Montague-Ebbs expects to see varieties being bred specifically for the smoothie and processed market that can be machine harvested. “It is less about looks and more about taste and the health benefits,” she explains.